Stories like this never cease to amaze me. Why are there so many fucking ignorant weirdos in our society and how do they even function in life? Their lives must be hell and/or miserable.

I'm kinda curious who the jerk member is in this thread, but fortunately I haven't been able to see their posts for several months now.

I'd be worried about paying him and he later cashes your check after the hold/cancellation expires. He sounds like a weirdo that would do something like that.

How I would handle it: Tell him the truth, that you believe he has the check in hand and is not cashing it in an attempt to get the game back.

Tell him you will be closing the account, that the check was written on, in 7 days. If he doesn't cash the check by then, it will be on him to prove he never got the check and on hm to get payment from you. This should strongly motivate him to cash the check.

Close the account and open a new one at a different bank. A pain in the ass, yes, but take it as a learning lesson to deal with only cash next time.

Now, I would be more comfortable paying him a second time if he did indeed never receive the check, since he wouldn't have the ability to "find" the check and cash it after receiving a second payment from you.