Holy Stolen Debit Card!!!!

[Brookers13]

Ok, so here's my story...

I'm in Windsor for my best friends bachelorette party. I plan on using cash to pay for everything. However, I hadn't changed my money over and so at dinner I used my card. After the bars, I head to subway at about 1:30 or so AM. I use my debit card again. There's like 5 of us there and we're drunk, not stupid, just drunk. A few of us use cards and we're waiting for receipts. We all sign and get the cards back....except me.

I totally didnt even notice I didn't get my card back. I wake up at 9:00 AM and see that my debit card isn't in my wallet. We clean the room and don't find it. I eat my breakfast and walk to Subway to ask if they have it. They don't. So I call to cancel the card. I find out there are charges on the card. I decide to wait till I get home to get freaked out. I have cash here, the card is cancelled. There's nothing else I can do. Something tells me to call back and find out if the card was used in Windsor, so I do. The lady gives me a breakdown of the entire $395.82 this jackass charged on my card, all the way up until it was cancelled. Then she says "Oh, it's showing that Foot Locker in Windsor has intercepted your card." So I call Foot Locker. They say that the guy is waiting for the cops and they have my card. So me and my friends all head down to the Devonshire mall. I walk back to where the kid is sitting in cuffs and call him a jackass and start crying. He tells me he found it on the street. Lying sack of shit. At this time, the kid has a hood on and I don't recognize him.

So we walk the mall for a bit and then decide to stand by the security office where the kid is still in cuffs and waiting for the cops. The guards have now taken his hood off and I realize he is the kid that worked at Subway. The security guards at the mall are sooooooooo awesome. They let me and my friends say whatever we want to the kid for over an hour while we wait. And they add their own funny comments in as well.

Finally the cops come and take the little hood rat away and I file my report. The kid spent $395.82 before anyone even IDed him....and the card was from a bank that's not even in Canada!

The cops just called me again. I guess hes got about 6 charges against him right now from this case and she wanted to know which locations of gas stations/convenient stores he was at because if they get him on surveillance using the card, he'll get charged with like 3 more things.

So, the situation is actually pretty comical thanks to my wonderful friends, the awesome security guards, and the fact that I had cash on me. I got really lucky because most people this happens to never get to find out who stole their card, and I got to yell at him in person. Woo!

[Canadian Bacon]

Wow close call.

But why did the cops nab the kid? Did the store owner suspect it was a stolen debit? if so, that's a pretty sharp eye...

[simply_angelic]

Wow, that's amazing! Definitely good karma there!

(and CB, I'm assuming the guys were able to knab him because he was trying to use a debit card that was cancelled! (and therefore red flagged) So they just held him until the police got a hold of him)

[HEWSINATOR]

I don't get this. Why do American Debit cards not always use pins?

And as an American debit on, I assume. the Visa network, you can use your debit where we in Canada would just use a Visa card?

[blinkchick2134]

Most American issued debit cards operate on the Plus or Star debit networks, which allows them to be used wherever. As far as I know most countries cards operate with those systems (wish I'd bought stock in them when I was little).

I can only speak for US-issued cards but most banks issue debit cards that are provided by major credit card companies, for instance my bank is a local Delaware bank but my card has a Visa logo on it. This makes it so I can use it either as a debit or credit card (meaning I either have to put a pin in or sign for it). I've worked in retail and unless the person seems iffy I never check for id, but where I work it's the same clients all the time (and we have their addresses and numbers already).

A few months ago we actually had a girl that had started working for my store steal my other co-workers credit card and cash. She walked across the street and spent $300 on a coach bag and then had the nerve to show up at work the next day. She went to court...I don't know what happened next though.

[Brookers13]

The guy at Foot Locker said he didn't think the kid was named Brooke so he asked for ID and thus caught him...had he ran the card, it would have been flagged since it was cancelled but he didn't even run it.

[space virgin]

Wow, that's a great story but shitty that it happened in the first place. You got REALLY lucky! Your bank will reverse the charges, right?

[Canadian Bacon]

Actually I also heard a recent case like that that happened with a supermarket clerk in North York, Toronto.

[Diorama]

Wow you are SO lucky. And getting to yell at the hooligan as well. That's just the cherry on top!

[HEWSINATOR]

My debit does not run on any of those networks (arrghhh, this is where my confusion comes from if you see my other thread about this) and does not even say my name on it. BUT, you would need to get my pin to use it anywhere.

The American system seems great for the customer in terms of convenience, but not in terms of security. I do wonder all the time though why CCs don't have pins. I mean, you sign on the back, how hard is it to copy that.

Sorry for the derail.

Hope it all goes smooth,

Matt

[patchouli Lover]

Wow Brooke that is so awesome!!! I love it that you got to yell at the little shit. I hope he has to pay your charges!

[mish99]

Cool that you got to yell at him!!!! Crap that it was stolen in the first place. But, cool story

[MeTurk]

The shops where supposed to check the name on the card. BBC did an experiment before chip and pin came in here where a guy went around signing all the reciepts micky mouse and he was only called on it once. The shop can be forgiven in most cases but when it's a girls name on the card and there's a man standing infront of you I think they should be held accountable.

[freespiritz]

Wow, that's kind of crazy! Sucks that it happened, but cool how it worked out in the end!