Bank of America Maplewood Village Branch officially closing?

Last week an unreliable source told me the building was sold and is coming down to be developed into condos. Can anyone confirm?

shestheone said:

Last week an unreliable source told me the building was sold and is coming down to be developed into condos. Can anyone confirm?

No information on Zillow or NJ Parcels for the bank property (161 Maplewood Avenue).  But this sounds very feasible.

I got the letter as well.  My interpretation is the branch is closing permanently.

yahooyahoo said:

No information on Zillow or NJ Parcels for the bank property (161 Maplewood Avenue).  But this sounds very feasible.

I got the letter as well.  My interpretation is the branch is closing permanently.

The town building department ought'a know.

I saw this on the internets:

Maplewood Avenue branch is definitely closing for good.  Letter has gone out to each safe deposit box holder giving a deadline for emptying their box.  Depositors have been sent a letter directing current Maplewood Avenue Branch customers who prefer in person banking to use the branch on South Orange Avenue.  Account numbers remain unchanged.  Jamie's image is a picture of the sign on the front door of the Maplewood Avenue branch building.  There is remaining BOA branch in Maplewood.  It is located on Springfield Avenue one block west of WAWA.  There is also a drive thru BOA ATM next to WAWA.

The atm was handy

Maplewood Village deserves better than this, even a small store front.  Unfortunately the building is an antique relic from another era. 

Looks like you'll have to print your own money at home.  It worked with stamps, right?

I like to share this issue my son just had at his BOA on the Upper West Side. Love to hear your opinions how this caper could have occurred.

Last Friday, just before leaving for a short business trip, my son stopped off at the bank’s ATM to make a withdrawal. Somebody else beat him to it! His account was minus $24K+,seemingly accessed by altering a check he had written a couple of days earlier for some $270+!

Because of the trip and Presidents’ day closing, it wasn’t until yesterday that he went to the bank, of course, he had reported the loss immediately. The bank says it is investigating the matter, but my son is left with dealing with the paperwork, etc with his suddenly closed account. He has not reported the theft to the police. Should he have?

How could an altered check — pay to, and written out amount line and numerical box — get cashed to begin with? Inside job? WWYD in such a situation?

He should definitely report it to the police.  It is easier than you would think to alter a check.  Who was the check made out to?  How was the check delivered?  Did the intended recipient receive it?   He needs to determine how the loss occurred to prevent the same thing from happening again.  

Does he know for a fact that it was an altered check that resulted in that much money being removed from his account?  If he does online banking or keeps any baking information online, it is equally possible that someone obtained his account number and pin and accessed the account directly.  If the latter, he needs to freeze all credit immediately and notify all banks and credit card companies he deals with immediately. Obviously, he should change all related passwords if the check was not the means used to withdraw money from his account.

This is the second time this week I know of an incident with an altered check. A friend keeps multiple bank accounts he then uses for different types of transactions, like one for online shopping, or one just to pay bills and tradespeople. He is forever switching money around, only moving it in when something needs to be paid, with the main accounts never connected to checks or cards. I always teased him - but he’s never experienced foul play, because the “offspring accounts” never have enough money in them for any length of time that they’re worth defrauding. 

mtierney said:

I like to share this issue my son just had at his BOA on the Upper West Side. Love to hear your opinions how this caper could have occurred.

Last Friday, just before leaving for a short business trip, my son stopped off at the bank’s ATM to make a withdrawal. Somebody else beat him to it! His account was minus $24K+,seemingly accessed by altering a check he had written a couple of days earlier for some $270+!

Because of the trip and Presidents’ day closing, it wasn’t until yesterday that he went to the bank, of course, he had reported the loss immediately. The bank says it is investigating the matter, but my son is left with dealing with the paperwork, etc with his suddenly closed account. He has not reported the theft to the police. Should he have?

How could an altered check — pay to, and written out amount line and numerical box — get cashed to begin with? Inside job? WWYD in such a situation?

Absolutely report to the police. If his credit gets messed up or if they steal his identity, the police report will be a necessary paper trail.

mtierney said:

I like to share this issue my son just had at his BOA on the Upper West Side. Love to hear your opinions how this caper could have occurred.

Last Friday, just before leaving for a short business trip, my son stopped off at the bank’s ATM to make a withdrawal. Somebody else beat him to it! His account was minus $24K+,seemingly accessed by altering a check he had written a couple of days earlier for some $270+!

Because of the trip and Presidents’ day closing, it wasn’t until yesterday that he went to the bank, of course, he had reported the loss immediately. The bank says it is investigating the matter, but my son is left with dealing with the paperwork, etc with his suddenly closed account. He has not reported the theft to the police. Should he have?

How could an altered check — pay to, and written out amount line and numerical box — get cashed to begin with? Inside job? WWYD in such a situation?

I legitimately spent $2000 at Lowes on new appliances last month and Citibank's fraud dept. declined it and informed me by text and phone immediately. While I don't doubt the details of your story, I'm honestly surprised a check of $24k didn't trip the fraud system and allowed it to cash without any notification or clarification from BoA. Not to mention that whoever cashed the check (I'm assuming one of these hole-in-the-wall check cashing places as putting it into an account would be instantly traceable and double-trip the Fraud/Anti-Money Laundering systems) would be super suspicious because they're now liable to return that $24k to BoA. If it was reported on Friday, BoA has been working on it since the report. 

Regarding the old bank building: When Maplewood is ultimately able to issue the licenses for the upcoming pot shops they should put one in there as it already has a vault for all the weed and cash. -Plus a drive-thru!

I've been on hold calling B of A, using the safe deposit phone number provided, for the last 25 minutes, to make an appointment to pick up the stuff.  Apparently they are not in a rush to return the box contents.  

Jasmo said:

Maplewood Village deserves better than this, even a small store front.  Unfortunately the building is an antique relic from another era. 

In continental Europe this building would not be considered antique or outdated, and would most certainly be preserved as a valuable real estate asset.  They don't build them like that anymore.

I have a friend who recently reported the same type of falsifying check stealing.  While this may not be a new crime, I suspect there is a new organized crime effort on this type of crime.  Report all of these crimes to local police and maybe the FBI.  I hope they are already working on stopping this type of crime.   Banks also have to take responsibility for stopping this.  

mtierney said:

I like to share this issue my son just had at his BOA on the Upper West Side. Love to hear your opinions how this caper could have occurred.

Last Friday, just before leaving for a short business trip, my son stopped off at the bank’s ATM to make a withdrawal. Somebody else beat him to it! His account was minus $24K+,seemingly accessed by altering a check he had written a couple of days earlier for some $270+!

Because of the trip and Presidents’ day closing, it wasn’t until yesterday that he went to the bank, of course, he had reported the loss immediately. The bank says it is investigating the matter, but my son is left with dealing with the paperwork, etc with his suddenly closed account. He has not reported the theft to the police. Should he have?

How could an altered check — pay to, and written out amount line and numerical box — get cashed to begin with? Inside job? WWYD in such a situation?

Was it a check he originally hand wrote? Or was it paid through "Zelle?"  In either case, the bank can provide him with a photo copy of the altered check, along with tracking where it was cashed and by who.

Preventing check fraud. When writing a check, do not leave a space between the payee and the space where you write numerical number of the account. Company I worked had a customer write a check....

Pay to the order of _x Company________________________________________/$____________.Thief got hold of it and altered..

Pay to the order of _X company &/or Joe Jones._________________________/$______________.

So, going along with your sentiments, which I agree with,  do you think that there's any way to repurpose the building in Maplewood in a way that could be preserved?  

mrmaplewood said:

Jasmo said:

Maplewood Village deserves better than this, even a small store front.  Unfortunately the building is an antique relic from another era. 

In continental Europe this building would not be considered antique or outdated, and would most certainly be preserved as a valuable real estate asset.  They don't build them like that anymore.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:

Preventing check fraud. When writing a check, do not leave a space between the payee and the space where you write numerical number of the account. Company I worked had a customer write a check....

Pay to the order of _x Company________________________________________/$____________.Thief got hold of it and altered..

Pay to the order of _X company &/or Joe Jones._________________________/$______________.

I was taught to always draw a line to fill any blank space like that, both in the payee line and also the hand-written amount line.  But these days I hardly ever write any checks at all.  The last dozen or more checks I've written were to my dog-walker who hasn't yet started taking PayPal/Venmo/etc.  Nearly all of my bill-paying is automatic online debit from either a credit card or my bank account.