Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Theft

The theft of Reha’s wallet happened on Saturday night. Most likely taken from our unlocked van. Yes, we live like we are in the “country” and didn’t bother to lock our doors. That’s changing, I assure you. Either it was a crime of opportunity with the unlocked van or someone swiped it, IF Reha left it at the grocery store. Crime of opportunity either way.

Late, late Sunday night we knew something was probably amiss. We’d cleaned the entire house and looked everywhere, but nothing was turning up. But because of the sort of people we are (dumb and naïve, in this case), we figured the wallet, purse and Blackberry would turn up. They were probably just lost or misplaced.

Not so much.

By Monday, whoever took her stuff was living pretty high on the hog. To the tune of over $8K from our checking account. Somehow they figured out her PIN number and then it was game over until we figured out what was happening and we could start canceling things. Plus charges on our personal AmEx, plus charges on her corporate credit card.

We don’t normally have such a monstrously huge balance in our checking account, but we are about to pay for Carrie’s Japan trip, plus assorted re-model related expenses. They hit us at the right time, basically. Which put me into paranoia over-drive mode, thinking they were somehow stalking us. Probably not true, but that’s why I went to Home Depot last night and started turning the Deal Family Compound into the Deal Family Fortress. I’m going to call an alarm company at some point, I think.

The credit card charges are less complex than the ATM/EFT charges. We just call up and say, “card was stolen, take evasive action! We didn’t do all that crap!” and it’ll get taken card of. (Hopefully, it’s been pretty easy so far with the CC companies). Since the ATMs/ETFs require a PIN number, the bank (and the merchant) consider them “authorized.” Obviously, they are not authorized transactions, but we have to file a “fraudulent transaction claim” for each ATM/EFT (18 of those on one account, unknown number on another). We’ll get all the money back, but it’s going to take 10-20 days (per transaction), so I’m betting we be out that moolah for a month.

In case anyone is worried, we have plenty of food and the mortgage is paid. All the charges will eventually be reversed and we have insurance out the wazoo (I think! Checking on that later today) for this sort of thing and they didn’t get all our money. I keep some cash stashed in the rabbit pellets for just such an occasion. Oh crap… I shouldn’t have said that. Don’t tell, mmm K?

For the record, her PIN number wasn’t in her wallet or written on the card or something equally moronic. Personally, I think they used a PIN reader/decoder thing. Because they also used a different ATM card from Re’s wallet. Or they just got lucky. We don’t really know how they got they PIN number, but man, once they got it, they went to town.

One major problem is that her Social Security card was in there. This is the most depressing thing, actually. Now we get to deal with the two most delicious bureaucracies ever invented, the Feds and the credit bureaus. If you have your SS card in your wallet or whatever, take it OUT and put it $SOMEPLACE_ELSE where it will be safe. Do not be dumb and carry it with you.

Another joy in all this is that the “robbery” occurred at our house, which is in the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s jurisdiction. But the fraudulent transactions were all over the map. So we have to file police reports from each of those localities and then feed them back to Deputy what’s-her-name at the Sheriff’s office. You have NO idea how much fun this has been so far. And plus I get to hear every cop make that sighing “tsk, tsk” noise when they ask about whether the car was locked or not and why she had her valuable stuff in the car. Thanks, that’s WAY helpful, Officer.

Here is a print-out from my online banking thing-y yesterday. (image pops when you click on it. Might not pop up in a feed reader).

I’ll leave it to you readers to tell me how you spend $738.35 at Walgreens. Probably buying the most psuedo-ephedrine the law will allow at each location, plus other crap is my guess. I really think this was/is the work of meth-addled tweakers. Bastards are probably still awake.

Thing is, these people will probably get caught. Every one of those places has surveillance cameras. Heck, Wal-Mart probably has a camera trained on you, RIGHT NOW, to make sure you don’t try anything funny. And they left a name and address at the PC store (where they probably bought some AWFUL Windows box that has neon lights and a built-in smoke machine, ugh). If they are smart, it’s a fake name, but I just have this feeling that these people aren’t that smart. Though if they are using a magstripe reader to get someone’s PIN number, that smacks of cleverness.

Speaking of PINs. I think I’m all about biometric identification. A four digit number just doesn’t seem like it’s good enough in this day and age.

Anyway, it’s going to be Dante’s ninth circle of Hell around here for a while, but we’ll get through it. Thanks for all the well wishes! Lock up the family jewels, people! Bad people abound! And they want your stuff.

I don’t know if I’ll be posting anything “else” for a bit. This whole drama will likely suck all my free time and I’m not in much of a mood to be funny. And, I’m having a hard time sleeping well. I got up 4 times last time, hearing “stuff” going on that turned to be just the wind or whatever. Plus, I have to dig the moat for the Deal Family Fortress. That’s going to take a while.

Jon scribbled this mess on 03/27/07 at 12:55 PM, best we can tell it fits in the category of Regular Post. This many folks had something to say about that, The permanent home of this entry is here: Link

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