My mother had her wallet stolen 1/14/11 at the Merritt island Publix. The thrieves got her ATM card, Soc. Sec. card, credit card, Medicare and health cards, license, and $100. They took the wallet out of her purse so she continued shopping while the thrives used her card. They bought $600 worth of Home Depot gift card at that very same store while she was still there. Then they went out to the ATM and withdraws $400 in cash twice. They went next door to CVS and bought $1000 worth of visa gift cards. They tried to get gas at a 7-11 shell but were declined. They went to the Merritt Island walmart and bought $2000 worth of merchandise. All within about 45 minutes. In the meantime my mother discovered her wallet gone an tried to report it. At first they told her she probably just left it home (my mother is 87 and deaf but highly intelligent and sharp). Finally they called a deputy whocame in 10 minutes. Assign a try were done she went across the street to her bank(Wachovia) to report it. They were nice but they told her she would be liable for the losses (a lie- she has a VISA ATM card) and did not tell her exactly what was taken or where. She asked them to stop it and they told her they had no way to stop it. She was a complete wreck when she left the bank. She is so hard of hearing that she only heard some of what was said and the bank didn't bother to assure that she understood it nor did they tell her what steps to take. She called me at work at 7pm. I went right over and made some phone calls. GM MasterCard told me she was not liable and would issue a new card. Very direct and easy. Wachovia gave me the wrong info. They said only two attempts were made to charge on her ATM at walmart and they were declined. The next day I decided to call the bank again an find out where the thieves were last so I could look for her wallet in the garbage to retrieve her ID. That is when I found out the true sequence of events as states above. The deputy gave my mother a case number and we never heard from him again. We went to the cvs and the store manager - Esther was extremely helpful. She tracked down the transaction, called VISA and had the cards de-activated. She said she would get the store video for us. Ten I went to Publix and the asst. manager, Jackie, immediately found the home depot transaction but there was no way to contact them to get the cards cancelled. She also found the video of the three women (2 black1 white) who did it and they actuall saw them go through the store and search other women's purses. She said she would call the deputy right away. I called the deputy and now, 2 days later, we still have not heard from him. Why didn't he do this? Why was I doing his work? We then went to home depot and they were less than helpful. Sai they couldn't help us at all. The publix manager said she would try to contact them and see if she could do something. The CVS and Publix managers are the heroes here. The insult to injury- the bank wants my mother to come back tomorrow so they can sell her "insurance" to cover losses. I went on to a government site and there is a whole plan to prevent any more losses or ID theft and it does not involve insurance. I contacted wachovia' corporate customer service to get some help and their response was that they would present this information at their inservice to make some future changes. I was dumbfounded. My mother is now well educated in theft and what she must do and will go to the bank tomorrow well- armed. And she is not going to buy insurance I can assure you. We have no idea where the sherriff's deputy is or what, if anything he is going to do to catch these people who obviously have been doing this for a while and will do it again.
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