Thief
On the 1st of August, John went spear fishing. He has a particular spot he likes to go. This particular day, while he was out in the water, someone broke into his car and stole his wallet, cell phone, check book, and his friend's cell phone. We immediately notified the police, cell phone company, our Credit Union, and Visa and Mastercard (John's gov. card). We also called Sears and notified the people that deal with Social Security stuff to tell them both our cards were stolen. We thought our bases were covered. I thought about joining one of the credit monitoring services just in case but just didn't get around to it...wasn't a top priority. Geez. Wish I had.
The man who stole John's wallet was able to use his government card at a grocery store and spent over $1700 there. He also went out to eat at Toni Roma's. He used one of the stolen checks (added a number to the beginning so it wasn't on our stop checks list) at Walmart and cleaned out our checking account. We also found out that he tried our Sears card but since we cancelled it, he just opened a new account and spent over $300 there.
On Fae's birthday...almost 3 weeks later...we found out he had opened an account at Lowe's and spent about $1500 there. And guess what!?! Yep...got another bill in the mail yesterday. This time from Best Buy for over $3300. I am so mad I can't even tell you!!! John works hard to earn a little money for our family. I try to budget the money so that, even though we don't have money for a lot of things, we can still be comfortable. Then there are people like this man who think everyone owes them something. In the end it hasn't cost us anything but a lot of time and disruption to our lives and a few points down on our credit. Our credit union was nice enough to just put the money back in our checking account. John is still fighting the store credit companies but hopefully all will be cleared up in the end.
The police department ended up catching the man who had John's things within a week. He also had the information and items of at least 24 other people. We have given recorded statements and will be going to court when they notify us when that will be.
Anyway. We now have a credit monitoring system, equifax.com. Its about $13/month and it monitors all 3 major credit bureaus and notifies us of any changes or if anyone even looks at our credit. We are recommending to all our friends and family to get something. Long gone are the times where you could leave your front door unlocked or even leave belongings safely locked in your car. Also, make sure the stores you shop at check ID.
So this is the latest episode in our lives. We'll try to learn something from it and then make peace with it all.
The man who stole John's wallet was able to use his government card at a grocery store and spent over $1700 there. He also went out to eat at Toni Roma's. He used one of the stolen checks (added a number to the beginning so it wasn't on our stop checks list) at Walmart and cleaned out our checking account. We also found out that he tried our Sears card but since we cancelled it, he just opened a new account and spent over $300 there.
On Fae's birthday...almost 3 weeks later...we found out he had opened an account at Lowe's and spent about $1500 there. And guess what!?! Yep...got another bill in the mail yesterday. This time from Best Buy for over $3300. I am so mad I can't even tell you!!! John works hard to earn a little money for our family. I try to budget the money so that, even though we don't have money for a lot of things, we can still be comfortable. Then there are people like this man who think everyone owes them something. In the end it hasn't cost us anything but a lot of time and disruption to our lives and a few points down on our credit. Our credit union was nice enough to just put the money back in our checking account. John is still fighting the store credit companies but hopefully all will be cleared up in the end.
The police department ended up catching the man who had John's things within a week. He also had the information and items of at least 24 other people. We have given recorded statements and will be going to court when they notify us when that will be.
Anyway. We now have a credit monitoring system, equifax.com. Its about $13/month and it monitors all 3 major credit bureaus and notifies us of any changes or if anyone even looks at our credit. We are recommending to all our friends and family to get something. Long gone are the times where you could leave your front door unlocked or even leave belongings safely locked in your car. Also, make sure the stores you shop at check ID.
So this is the latest episode in our lives. We'll try to learn something from it and then make peace with it all.
Comments
Brian is the better blogger, so it will be good. Thanks for letting us know that you joined the blogger world!