The A&W Case

Losing socks in the dryer is one thing and it doesn't take long to kiss off that loss.

But losing a bank deposit is quite another thing.

Just ask Carmen Guthrie, the long time customer friendly manager at the downtown Visalia A&W restaurant on Willis Street.

On Sept.5, 1998, Carmen made a weekend deposit at a Visalia bank.

It wasn't until the owners, the Bob Carey family including Craig Van Horn, reviewed their monthly bank statement that they found the deposit had never been recorded. Like the proverbial socks, it seemed to have vanished into thin air.

The bank rechecked its records and found no trace of the deposit, but the security system video tape showed Carmen at the deposit site at the time she recalled going to the bank.

The owners had no doubt that Carmen was telling the truth but company policy dictated that the incident was noted in her personnel file.

Last week, Jan 30, 2004, nearly five and one-half years later, the mystery has been solved. The deposit was found. Carmen, now an 11-year Willlis Street A&W veteran and store manager, received a telephone call from a bank worker informing her that the deposit bag had been found wedged into the deposit box. Even though the deposit box is checked each day for any "hang ups", the A&W bag was nestled into some tiny crack. The money, the bank said, is being credited into the proper account.

Van Horn and Carmen say they find it hard to believe that the deposit stayed lost for so long, but are excited that the mystery has been solved. "We have a great business relationship with the Bank., West America," Van Horn said, several days after the mystery was solved.

Carmen says it took months for her to stop thinking about the lost deposit. "I knew I had made that deposit. The video tape showed me opening the slot.", she said, adding that she considered the possibility that someone making a deposit after her could have found the bag wedged in the chute and taken it, but there was no video tape evidence that might have happened.

Carmen, who is known for her warm greetings to downtown A&W customers, many of them regulars for many years, is pleased as punch (make that root beer) to have the mystery solved.

The deposit was in the neighborhood of $1,000 including $29 in checks which, of course, never cleared the bank.

And Van Horn says that while the bank is finishing the proper paperwork to finally resolve the issue, he probably won't push the issue of lost interest over the five and one-half years.

But he will be on the alert to check at home to see if any of his lost socks suddenly appear.

ALSO ABOUT TO MAKE AN APPEARANCE is the newest downtown Visalia restaurant, "Acequia on Main" which is replacing the Main Street Hofbrau at 211 W. Main.

Matteo and Jacqueline Watkins hope to open the "casual fine dining" establishment by the end of this month.

And if you pholks are wondering why the name "Acequia on Main" for a restaurant one block north of Acequia Street, just ask Matteo. He'll tell you that the word refers to irrigation which has made the San Joaquin Valley the richest agricultural area in the world. Since the new restaurant's faire is being built around locally grown and produced ingredients, the connection was a natural.

Farmers markets will be the prime source of as much food supplies as possible. Each day's menu will feature specially prepared entries of pasta, steaks, fish, poultry and vegetarian faire. Watkins, who spent 12 years chefing in the Napa-Sonoma area and Minnesota, will serve lunch and dinner, six days a week. Some of his friends from as far away as Australia as well as several other states are working to put the finishing touches on the new establishment. The wine list will feature "one hundred per cent" Valley wines, which, Matteo says, rapidly are gaining recognition as some of the best anywhere.

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