By Ray Birch
BOOVILLE—Through the mist and fog of this Halloween season, it’s clear credit unions have had a frighteningly busy year—dealing with all of the demands of the health crisis, a shift to digital that’s changing the business model, and mask-wearing members scared away from ever showing up in person at the CU again.
In 2020, CUToday.info had a graveyard full of Tales from the Credit Union Crypt to share—horror stories from CUs across the country over how they were coping in a new environment, including stories of possession from Zoom meetings preyed upon by poltergeist.
Not this Halloween season. In 2021, the credit union community has been eerily quiet, a sign they have much to deal with in their bags of tricks and treats.
But those who bravely stepped out of the shadows have a lot to share.
One credit union in the deep, dark hills of the Virginia, admits it did not take long to come up with a few “scary stories” from the past pandemic-wracked year.
“Horrifying? You be the judge, but it’s an understatement to say these things did make us cringe,” stated the CEO of a credit union as silent as a mummy when it came to unwrapping his name.
Looking back to the period in which the credit union had to briefly shut down its offices due to the health crisis, reopening became a horror story.
The Unwelcome Mat
“Our credit union re-opened the lobby for business, but kept the public restrooms closed as part of COVID-related precautions,” the CEO stated. “On an otherwise beautiful day two members—brothers—felt the call of nature as they parked their car in front of the entrance door.”
Knowing the CU’s restrooms were not available, their solution—soft drink cups.
“But they disposed of the cups’ contents right in front of our lobby doors,” the CEO said, cringing at the frightening memory, as did many members who walked into the credit union that morning. “They did this not once, but twice. Jaws dropped, followed by dreadful gasps and eerie moaning sounds from several staff members who observed the incident from a second-floor window.”
‘We Ran Away’
But fear does not always strike from the hands of the living. No, some of the scariest things are hidden away in documents that detail a credit union’s darkest, most haunting problems.
“I think we all have some degree of fear of unknown things, hidden away, lurking in the dark, just waiting to attack,” the same CEO stated. “That’s the sort of feeling we experienced this year as we conducted due diligence on a merger candidate. Yes, those were some of the scariest loan documentation files we’ve ever seen. We ran away from that deal in fright.”
But a cauldron of bubbling issues hasn’t just been limited to the CU itself.
“Some members apparently have a very low threshold for fear. Afraid to put your hand into a mailbox, lest something in there bites you? One of our members may fit into that category,” the CEO shared. “He engaged the services of a class-action attorney who accused us of ‘threatening’ his client just by sending him a notice reminding him his payment was overdue.”
The Creepy Camper
The horror stories just keep coming out of the hills of the Virginias—this time from Linda Bodie, CEO of Element FCU in Charleston, W.Va.
Bodie’s first tale of terror is about a creepy RV that came back to haunt.
“We had a camper that needed to be repossessed in Pennsylvania. After weeks of looking, the agent found it,” recalled Bodie. “The camper was moved to the repo storage lot with plans to move it to auction after 10 days. Within a day or two, the repo agent called and said they just received notice from Pennsylvania State Police to not move the unit.”
Bodie said the police stated they needed to inspect it. It was evidence in a case.
“The camper remained on the repo lot for over a month. The Pennsylvania Police Department finally released it to be moved and sold. When the repo agent called us, he told us he found out why he was required to hold the unit,” Bodie said. “The camper was being used for prostitution. He asked how we wanted to proceed. Did we want it back or move it to auction? We jokingly told him to burn it. In the end, the camper was sent to auction and sold. We refer to this camper story as the ‘mobile brothel.’”
Haunted (by a Felony)
Bodie acknowledged Element FCU faced more than one blood-curdling story about possession.
“We recently had to repossess an automobile. The member had made only one loan payment during a six-month period. The repo agent called just hours after the auto was moved to their storage lot to say the member broke into the storage lot and stole the car,” Bodie explained. “The member drove the car through a large fence. The repo company had to press charges and the member is facing a felony misdemeanor.”
And, perhaps the scariest story of all this Halloween, is one involving a criminal and an embarrassing mistake by a member.
“We had a member come to the drive-thru stating she had fraudulent charges on her account statement. She stated that she does not make phone sex calls, and there are ‘intimate calls’ listed on her checking statement several times,” Bodie said. “We asked her to send her statement through so we could look at it.”
After reviewing the member’s statement, the credit union saw the calls were actually listed as ‘inmate calls,’ not intimate calls.
“We then asked her if she accepted calls from anyone in jail. She said yes,” Bodie said. “We explained the charges were from an inmate. She started to laugh and said, ‘Yes, that’s my daughter calling from jail.’ So, on this Halloween, please beware of strange looking charges on your accounts. And, I have to say, we could not make these stories up. Happy Halloween.”
Other Tales from the CU Crypt
Credit unions also shared some other scary stories from the past year
“Our regulatory agency ‘required’ us to offer skip payments to members early in COVID, then a few months later on wrote us up in the Examination for not adopting a Board Resolution to do so,” one CEO told CUToday.info. “The examiner was aware the board had been immediately informed of the mandate and given the opportunity to shape all of the actions being taken, but true enough - no formal resolution was adopted since it appeared to be moot given the nature of the order.”
‘Oh, No’
“We were told last fall that our online banking platform was being upgraded, everyone had to upgrade, and we were all going to pay for the upgrade!” shared one CUs. “Well as a small CU <$10M, our monthly fee was going up about $100/month with an implementation fee of $6,200, to which I replied, ‘Oh H… No!’ I thought our platform was just fine, but oh, no, we must upgrade for the new enhancements, and with one in which most of our members current login ID’s would no longer be valid and they could not reset themselves after our live date. Geesh-what a fiasco that was. I bargained for half-price implementation but still-$3,100 for something we didn’t even have on our radar or felt we needed.
“This was on top of our ACH Conversion, Check processor conversion, implementing a new service along with the many other requirements that a small credit union president handles in day-to-day operations.”
A Flood of Horrors
Finally, in response to CUToday.info’s invitation to share Halloween horror stories, Annetta Sharp from CSEFCU in Lake Charles, La., said the credit union has been dealing with frightening issues since long before Halloween.
She noted Lake Charles has been hit by two major hurricanes, a paralyzing deep freeze, and now flooding rainfall that has inundated hundreds of homes.
Among some of the lowlights of the year:
- January 2020: COVID-19 & working from home and for some of our employees a loss of family & friends to COVID.
- August 27, 2020: Hurricane Laura, category 4
- Oct. 9, 2020: Hurricane Delta, category 2
- Feb. 14, 2021: Ice storm
- May 17, 2021: 8 to 15 inches of flooding rain
- August 29, 2021: Hurricane Ida hits Southeast Louisiana. “We get to return the favor. A lot of our employees were staying with family members in Southeast Louisiana after hurricanes Laura & Delta; now those families are with us after they get hit with Hurricane Ida. Supplies & contractors to fix homes and businesses still in short supply and some still waiting on insurance funds.”
“Needless to say, our new CEO has had one heck of a first year but he has done a great job in helping all of us and the community,” said Sharp. “We are ‘LA Strong’ and people helping people is what we do and what has made us all stronger.”