Where did John say his check showed that amount? I believe I read in the first year or so that the amount was off by 27 thousand? Maybe it was a forum guess and I am wrong?
edit to add, from RMN..it doesn't really clear up the issue,but comes close
Familiar references: The letter incorporates references some interpret as information only the Ramseys should know. One is the ransom amount -- $118,000 -- which was the net amount of John Ramsey's most recent bonus. Smit agrees the $118,000 may have meaning, but not only for the Ramseys. For example, earlier that year a disgruntled former employee of Ramsey's company claimed it owed him close to $118,000. Three other employees of Ramsey's company knew the amount of Ramsey's bonus. And two employees owed the firm $18,000. Smit also believes it's significant the writer asked for $100,000 in $100 bills and the remaining $18,000 in $20 bills. Maybe this person wanted to bank $100,000 and spend $18,000, he said. Also, just as it's questionable why an intruder would use the $118,000 figure, it's equally questionable why Patsy Ramsey, if trying to stage a murder, would use it. Why not a round figure? Smit asks. The letter is signed using the acronym SBTC. Police wondered if that was a reference to Subic Bay, a training center where John Ramsey spent time during his naval career, though no one in the Navy apparently used that acronym to describe the place. Smit doesn't know what the acronym means but is aware of other places where its use has appeared, including a sign at a protest demonstration with SBTC spelled out vertically. Horizontally, it reads: Stop/Bombing/Third world/Countries.