HIGH FINANCE.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue 234, 2 October 1937, Page 4 (Supplement)

HIGH FINANCE.

TRUCK DRIVER'S VENTURE. OUT-SMARTED HIMSELF. BUT COMMITTED NO CRIME. The case of tlie truck driver who bought 90,000 dollars in postal money orders in six months turned out to be just a matter of a guy who out-smarted himself. When postal inspectors found that a substation in a drug store at East Orange, N.J., had sold so impressive an amount of money orders to one man they scented something deep, mysterious, and unsavoury. The truck driver and the druggist alike refused to explain. Druggist Trustful Soul. But the explanation finally came out. It is a matter of high finance needing practically an Einstein to understand, but here is the story as it now appears: The truck driver (name withheld by the authorities because, after all. lie committed no crime) and the druggist (name likewise withheld) were and still are friends. Six months ago the truck driver bought an SO dollars money order from the druggist's postal substation, but didn't have the money to pay for it. The druggist agreed to trust him until next day because under postal regulations he wasn't required to deliver the cash to the main post oflice until the day after the transaction occurred. The driver cashed the money order, but was unable to pay as promised. But the driver had the answer. He bought another, for the original amount plus the fee charged by the post oflice for monev orders, and again postponed pavnient for a day. And So On, and So On. The same thing happened the next day. and continued daily for six months, the amount of the money order rising by the amount of the fee each time. | Eventually it reached the point where the tojek. Asixesr vu buying at the rate.;

of 2000 dollars a day. This was the the episode cost the druggist Under the sliding scale of money order fees charged by the Post Office Department the driver paid an average of about one-fourth of 1 per cent a day interest. This amounts to the highly usurioiU rate of approximately 00 per cent a year. The postal substation, authorities said» probably will be closed, but no action can be taken against either the borrow® or the lender.