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Treatment of ‘safe house’ resident is troublesome
Published Monday, April 21, 2008
Safe houses are provided for abused, battered, and many other instances of mistreatment of women, children and older people, from my understanding.
Having been in an abusive relationship 30-plus years ago, I can relate only too well to what happens and how a person feels. Luckily I had my family’s support through it all.
The other day, a friend of mine stopped by and was feeling very upset over the treatment they had received that day. This friend had recently gone to the safe house, which is doing a fantastic job to help people. Even helping to provide a cell phone in case of emergencies so 911 could be dialed just in case.
Another local business provided good used tires for the back of their vehicle. Wow, how wonderful. I know help was given by the Salvation Army and maybe some other places, too.
A former employer had a house he rented out for this person, too, and is working with them as to the deposit, etc.
This person also has a disability and receives checks in the mail, so approached a local bank to set up an account for automatic deposits, well since just getting out of the safe house and just moving into a new rental, none of the ID's had the current address on them. The bank would set up the account, but it had to be the address on the driver's license.
Excuse me, but there was a reason this person left that address and under the circumstances, why would you want the person that has been abusing you to know where you are and have access to your accounts?
This person was told it was the bank’s policy. My friend left crying and went to another bank (both were in Fergus Falls) and was greeted with open arms by the second bank, which obviously knows something about what an abused person goes through and the protections that are needed.
I was appalled to hear what the first bank had done to this person and for sure I would never give them the time of day.
I also told my friend to inform the safe house as to how the bank handled the situation; but just in case, I'm writing this to make sure someone reads it and hopefully the safe house and others won’t have to face the same problem again.
I'm very upset over this situation.
Dave Messenger - Fergus Falls
Comments
The Daily Journal is happy to host community conversations about news and life in Fergus Falls and the surrounding area. As hosts, we expect guests will show respect for each other. That means we don't threaten or defame each other, and we keep conversations free of personal attacks. Witty is great. Abusive is not. If you think a post violates these standards, don't escalate the situation. Instead, flag the comment to alert us. We'll take action if necessary. It's not hard. This should be a place where people want to read and contribute -- a place for spirited exchanges of opinion. So those who persist with racist, defamatory or abusive postings risk losing the privilege to post at all.Posted by alwayshere (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 1:32 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I hope you and your friend can also understand, that with the day and age we live in identity theft, and many other crimes are out there for a bank to worry about, it is unfortunate the trouble your friend ran into, but rather than lay the blame totally on the bank, both sides should be considered, it appears to be simple for people to steal identities these days, and I am sure the banks policy was just to safe guard against such crimes. All that said I am glad things turned out well in the end for your friend.
Posted by eripsni (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 1:40 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Agreed. It's the day that we live in, it wasn't anything personal to your friend.
Posted by steve1955 (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 2:49 p.m. (Suggest removal)
If Banks were people they would be jerks.
Posted by kingdanno (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 4:06 p.m. (Suggest removal)
Let me guess ... the first bank was corporate, the second bank was local (or at least had local connections).
Posted by justme (anonymous) on April 21, 2008 at 7 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I agree that this is something the safe house should be aware of to better assist its clients in the future. It is perfectly understandable that the bank would have policies to prevent identity theft, however, this is a special situation that should be handled differently. Perhaps the safe house could serve as an advocate so that the client does not have to go into personal details just to obtain an account, or maybe they should just recommend one bank over another because of their policies. Another point is that you can easily change your address at the DMV, but will not have a new photo ID immediately to set up an account.
Posted by freda (anonymous) on April 28, 2008 at 2:09 p.m. (Suggest removal)
I think that if you change your address at the DMV, they cut the corner off your old liscense and give it back to you. With the new temporary paper liscense and the photo on the old drivers liscense, you have proper ID.
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