So here I am this morning opening a pile of mail – schwag from companies, bills, checks for Heather, payroll stuff, the usual. I rip all the envelopes open and then dig in. And I look down and see this check for $1.3 million and change. Trust me, there’s nothing quite like opening up a letter addressed to you and finding a check inside for $1,334,261.05.
First thought: woohoo! Second thought: why? Third thought: oh, it’s not made out to me. Of course. Fourth thought: oh crap, it’s addressed to me but the wrong name, did I just commit a felony by opening it without even paying attention (my lawyer is getting back to me on that, meanwhile, I’m taking a quick vacation in Mexico)?
The check is from Pure Digital Technologies, the company that Cisco recently acquired for $590 million (Pure Digital makes the Flip camera). A letter accompanying the check says that the money represents “net proceeds from the cash out of your stock options.”
So what happened? Pure Digital says the person it was supposed to be sent to used to live in my house a long time ago. They also asked if I could send it back, and assured me they put a stop payment on it. It’s now safely in the mail to them, I promise.
But it does provide a nice bookend to the story. And frankly, I think I deserve at least a finder’s fee for returning this so promptly. Pure Digital wasn’t amused by that request.
