Go ahead.

Read that headline again.  We’ll wait.

Done?

Yup, it’s true.  Under certain circumstances, an attempt to pay down your debt triggers a concern with the Department of Homeland Security, as Walter and Deana Soehnge found out.

The story is quite simple.  The Soehnges had run up a huge debt on their JC Penney Platinum MasterCard.  So, as reasonable adults do, they sent in a large payment — a check for $6,522.

A short time later, they went online to see if their account had been credited.  It had not.

After several calls up and down the customer service hell, they finally found out the reason why:

[T]he amount they had sent in was much larger than their normal monthly payment. And if the increase hits a certain percentage higher than that normal payment, Homeland Security has to be notified. And the money doesn’t move until the threat alert is lifted.

Eventually, the account was credited, although the couple never did learn how paying off a debt raises national security concerns.

Perhaps the Soehnges should take over port operations at many major cities.  Then they wouldn’t be hassled this way.