What is a transparent order?

What should I do if my money order was stolen and cashed?

• I bought a money order for $1,000 about 8 weeks ago. I mailed it to my escrow agent as a deposit for a house I was considering buying. I ended up deciding against the house, and my realtor mailed me the money order back. I never received it. I waited quite awhile, and then filled out a refund request through Money Gram. I still have the stub from the end of the money order, and I have a scanned copy of the money order from before I mailed it. Today, instead of my refund, I received a statement from Money Gram saying I couldn't get a refund because the money order had already been cashed. They included a scanned copy of the cashed money order. The "pay to the order of" line had been crossed out, and the name of some grocery store had been written in. It was endorsed on the back with a stamp from the grocery store "Royal Supermarket & Sons" so there's no specific name I can trace it to. My name and address were still on the money order as the "from" lines. Shouldn't the theif crossing out the "pay to the order of" have alerted the grocery store that there was some sort of fraud going on? That, and the fact that the person who it was "from" wasn't present? Can I press charges against the grocery store for accepting/cashing this stolen money order? I've filed a police report, and my realtor is doing so tomorrow as well. I've filed a complaint against the grocery store with the BBB and the FTC. I'm so angry about this. It's $1,000 someone stole from me--and they stole from the US Postal Service too. What else can I do to make sure whoever did this gets caught and prosecuted? Is it possible to get my money back from Money Gram at all, or no?

• Answer:

  If the grocery store accepted a money order where the name was crossed out, they bear the most responsibility for that. You should sue them in civil court for that.