Businesses attempt to extinguish 'hot checks'

A series of incidents involving "hot checks" is forcing small businesses to consider their debt collection options or be left out in the cold. Small businesses in San Angelo, Texas, are taking new measures to get paid. The businesses, fed up with being unable to cash checks due insufficient funds in the customers' accounts, are publishing the names of the individuals in the paper, Go San Angelo reports. Overall, the businesses are owed $573,066 on 11,234 outstanding warrants. The San Angelo Municipal Court decided that in order to recoup the money for the owners as well as to dispose of the warrants and locate 3,745 defendants, their names would be published in the Standard-Times, the news source explains. "It's a form of theft," Glenna Friedrich, president of the San Angelo Better Business Bureau, told the source. "It's like shoplifting. If you take half a million (dollars) out of circulation, that is a huge impact on the businesses and you and me." Some legal agencies are partnering with debt collectors to help retailers better recoup the money. Efforts include sending letters on district attorneys' offices letterheads and offering financial classes.