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Well, it happens to the best of us. I lost my Visa/Check card on May 20th. I believe I left it in the ATM machine at a bank down the road late that Friday when I went to Taco Hell and got cash first. Saturday afternoon, I found it gone when I stopped to get gas. I figured, "no big deal, I'll call the bank I left it at and ask them if they have it Monday morning". I called and they did not have it, told me to call back around 3pm. I called back, and still no card.
I called my bank and told them the card was missing. I didn't have time to come and fill out new paperwork, so I decided I would just write checks and get cash out the old fashion way until I did. This was working okay and I thought that it was keeping me from spending a lot of money. I was keeping my records up better this way, too.
So, this morning, I went to get some cash out and asked the teller for a print out of my account so I could balance it to my check book. When she handed me the print out, it said I had about $372 in the account. That was wrong. I should have had over $1k. I looked at the last transaction on the printout and it was a visa check card (ie, ATM) transaction at a local Applebee's on a day when I had been at the office in another state.
HOLY SHIT!
Immediately, I asked to see the rest of the account print out.
There were transactions all over the place. Applebee's, Blockbuster, Burger King, Wal Mart, you name it, they were having a high old time with my card. Immediately, I asked to see a manager.
All told, they spent $920 in less than a week.
I asked the bank why my card wasn't stopped when I called. They don't have record of the stop. They said they will now pull all the transactions and compare my signature with the one on the receipts. Ten days to decide if they are putting it back in my account.
Son of a bitch!
Mortgage is due and I just wrote checks on the account this weekend.
I am so highly pissed right now I could fucking hit something.
There are a lot of thieves and scumbags in this world.
Monday, June 06, 2005
Thieves
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8 comments:
Damn. You called and reported it lost/stolen and they didn't immediately disable it? WTF?
I wish I knew what bank it was, so I'd know not to do business with them. I've already got one local bank--Commerce--on my blacklist for acting unforgivably stupid.
Jim...it's a little local bank I've been doing business with for over seven years. Until this very moment, they've been very good to me. I think they are going to put the money back in (the girl seemed very nice, but we'll see), but it is such a pain in the ass.
If I hadn't asked to see my balance, I probably wouldn't have noticed until I got the first bounced check later this week.
Can you believe the cajones of the thief? They had dinner for $75.00 at the Applebee's two blocks from my house Friday night.
I made a police report, too.
Hopefully, somebody will try to use it and get snagged.
The stolen card thing works better in the tv commercials, eh? You call and presto....you have a new card and the money replaced in day. Although I've never had the experience of losing my card before, I've heard of people that have and it was an act of congress to rectify the problem. Hope it goes better for you!
Only $920? I'd have wiped out the whole account on the first day.
Amateurs. ;)
Hopefully, somebody will try to use it and get snagged.
Doesn't lessen the pain in the ass factor, but it would be nice if they got caught and paid for it at least a little bit--if not monetarily, then penally. Ideally both. The amount's almost enough to be felony theft, isn't it?
I've left ATM cards in the machine before, and there's normally a pretty short time-out before they get sucked back in. They must have gotten there just moments after you left; heck, you might even have seen them. If I was the bank, I'd have that thing sucking the card back in in under 30 seconds.
Tim...that's true. I just had to sign 32 claims on each of the transactions. I believe that anything over $500 is a felony.
I think Ciggy is right. I was just speaking to my brother who noted the same thing. A professional would have taken the card and made big purchases that they could easily turn around for cash.
Whoever this was was spending $5 at McDonald's, $10 at Taco Bell, $30 at Amaco gas station, $15 at food festival; the biggest hits were the $75.00 for Applebees friday night and $154.00 for something called LW Entertainment.
This sounds like some punk kid who didn't know better.
The best, though, is the $28 at Blockbuster. I don't have a blockbuster account, so who ever they put the movies or games on, their account is going to be registered and this person is screwed. I plan to make sure that they pay big time.
Jim...my brother was commenting on the possibility that, even though I don't remember getting my card back, I did get cash and then bought food, that I dropped the damned thing in a parking lot.
I'm still mad as hell.
That is such a damn shame, Kat. How frustrating for you, and to have the bank mess up like that is really sad.
...$154.00 for something called LW Entertainment.
That's probably Diamond Joe's or something. ;-)
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