We sold my wife's BMW. The buyer checked out after some online research, he is a police sergeant in Whitefish. Says he has cash.

We're supposed to meet today, and his last text was asking if I'd accept a bank check.

This was the discussion:



So I will have a bank check in hand and unless anything wrong...which it clearly doesn't seem to be....we will take it....I am a police officer in Whitefish and our secretary will notarize the title all you need to do is sign if that is cool with you

Common sense tells me to "wait until the check clears" before releasing ownership.

Can I trust the head of the Police dept and just accept the check (I can auto deposit it right on my phone) and release ownership?

Just because he is a guy with a badge doesn't give him any more rights than you'd give me. If you wanted to wait until the check cleared, he should understand that as normal business and not be offended.

What did the agreement state?

There was a guy at the WAC show who claimed to be a retired Lt Col. with service in S. Vietnam who wrote me a check. It bounced but I had his WAC #, and I confronted him afterward and he paid me cash. Later I found out he was an E-4 who never went to S. Vietnam.

Problem is that you can't really wait for the check to clear nowadays.

USPS money order is the only alternative to cash.

You can't trust people any more.

His info:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-veneman-70a27759

Vice president of the Glacier Twins, club league youth baseball:
https://www.glaciertwinsbaseball.org/about-us.html

Wife said "We've accepted checks before from strangers so why would we not do it this time?" It's her car, soooo

A bank check is different than a personal check. Bank checks are drafted BY the bank out of the funds of the account holder. The bank is guaranteeing the funds by issuing the check. I'd go straight from the PD to that officers bank and cash the check.

Why did cash change to a bank check (which is like a regular check)?

Some bank checks are like a regular check, to where when the check is presented, the amount is withdrawn from available funds. There are bank checks that are withdrawn from your account and are cash equivalents. How do you tell the difference between institutions?

Convenience I would venture to guess.

As an LAPD sergeant once told me, don't let your mouth write a check your ass can't cash.

Commander Tom "Stinger" Jordan said basically the same thing in 1986. CDR Tom "Stinger" Jordan was the CAG or Commander Air Group of the USS Enterprise, a United States nuclear aircraft carrier.

.

THIS

Notarize title? Nonsense.

https://www.becu.org/support/cashiers-check

I guess I am wrong. I though I heard from the past from somewhere (eBay or GunBroker) that bank checks or the like were not all the same.

Cash only.
I’d not accept a check or any other type of payment.

I used to do a ton of gunshows. During that long history, I only had two checks bounce. One was from a uniformed Puyallup policeman for $500.

He made good on it and was terribly embarrassed.