Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Odenton. A former Ruth's Chris Steakhouse employee pled guilty yesterday to credit card theft and in case involving a charge card, which means you have to pay it off at the end of the month, but you can get one that is not. So that that's just a regular credit card. Yeah. What is a bank card? That sounds like it's more debit account. But American Express does that? Or is it like I used to have or I still have, I guess, I have from Bank of America a bank card, but it's Visa. Is that all this is? It's like the bank has partnered with American Express. Maybe. I don't know. We need I don't need to get locked down in that. I was just asking. OK. The woman who who had who had left the the who had dined at the restaurant realized she left her American Express bank card there. The woman received a voicemail from a man named Newman. Who identified himself as the restaurant manager. Saying that she had left the card. The woman said an employee of Ruth's Chris Steakhouse confirmed that the voicemail was from Newman. However, before the woman could pick up her card, she learned that the card had been used for multiple purchases. Everything from a hundred or $14.82 at the giant. To $1,700 at Cays Jewelers in Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. $700 at Bay Seas in Willow Grove and $600 at Hamilton Watch in Lancaster, PA. OK, so they ended up busting the guy. Here's the part that's weird. In a statement. So this is in Odenton, which is Anarondale County. It's actually a mile and a half from the ship. Yeah, it is. It's very close. And I look very close. Excellent. That's like a whole good food area. OK, here's your statement from the Anarondale County state's attorney and Colt LaTess, LaTess, LaTess and Colt. It doesn't matter, Elliot. In a statement, Anarondale County state's attorney and Colt LaTess said use of a stolen credit card cases are often hard to prove. Oh, hmm. It's significant and commendable that the police investigators were able to track down the purchases the thief made by linking them to the fraudulent charges. While the defendant made charges totaling three thousand, blah, blah, blah, dollars, only thirty dollars of that took place in Maryland. Why? Why is that so hard to why? If they said it's un. What was the what was the sentence? Hard to prove. Use of a stolen credit card cases are very hard to prove. Why? Doesn't it seem like it'd be easy to prove? Is the use of the card in those various places, the part that makes it hard to without good police work, difficult to connect to your suspect? Wait, say that again. You obviously listed a bunch of. Yeah, he went to the Cays Jewelers. He went to the Macy's. He went to the giant. Yeah, a handful of charges. Is it making sure it's actually that person using the card? So you're saying it's like, if I may, the reason that if you if you go driving through a speed cam first thing I thought of, right, the car gets the ticket, the driver doesn't, because they don't know who's in the car. Well, didn't Sarah, did you just tell us the other day that you've had your numbers compromised quite a bit? Yes. Has your card been used? Yes. Has it really? Did they prosecute? Two different. No. Well, two different scenarios have happened. My credit card has been intercepted in the mail, but my American Express number gets stolen frequently and they think it's just dark web. It's just digital. Back in the olden days, I worked at a restaurant. Somebody went into the back where employees kept their stuff, took my credit card out, went and bought stuff, checked into a hotel and put my credit card back. So I didn't know it was missing. Right. They did track those people down because they were caught on security camera. But every other time my credit card has been stolen, they have no idea who it is because they think the numbers were sold. So this guy wasn't a physical card. It was just the numbers. So Newman could have theoretically said to somebody, hey, you want to buy a diamond ring. Here's the number. Here's the number. Right. Give me 50 bucks. So is that so is are we misunderstanding and Colt Littess? Well, we're applying her case that's written about to her comment, but her comment may not be in her head. Applied only to this case. Yeah, but it sounds like like what she said, it that these cases are very hard to prove. Does she mean because a lot of times it's just the number and the only ones that do get proven are the ones where they physically use the card? That may be what she's trying to say. Do you know what else I wonder? It two of two things. She said one of them was in Maryland and was the other one in Virginia. So no, no, no, no, Pennsylvania and Maryland. Yeah. So maybe they don't cooperate. And so why would Maryland investigate the Pennsylvania or I know they cooperate on speeding tickets. But is that a hack? If you steal, right, you go across state lines. No, well, you know what the hack is? Steal a credit card and use it. You're not going to get caught. Or do they not bother? Or do they just not care? Yeah, because the credit card is just going to eat the money and they don't want to put the police work in. That's for nothing. But. I'd like to think they care a little bit because you at times say that you don't need to call the cops for A, B or C. Oh, there's a lot of crimes I don't need to call the cops for. And you then will sometimes pantomime the reaction at the precinct. Oh. It's profane. It's best left unsaid. Sorry, Sarah. It's quite a hand gesture. Yeah, maybe. But maybe maybe that's right. Maybe your card was physically stolen. Shouldn't you call the cops? I get if they're like, hey, we're a local. Hey, police. They just stole my card. You if it's the dark web. Right. The small town sheriff's not going to be able to tackle that. OK, no, I understand that. But if I want, if somebody it doesn't have to be a small town, if I was eating at a restaurant in D.C. and my card gets stolen, if I call MPD, do I think they're going to go? Hey, stop everything. We got a stolen credit card. I don't think they would. Well, I think that when I lived in New York and they stole my computer at Knife Point, the cops are like, you're never going to see that computer again. So would they tell me if in D.C. Just cancel the card like you're not getting that back. Well, you probably should do that before you even call the cops. If you're going to go in some sort of chronological order. OK, so I called the credit card company. I need to turn my card off. Then I call the police ago. Hey, somebody stole my card. Yeah, OK, I probably wouldn't. It didn't occur to me. I don't think I've ever called the cops. Even for the one where they used it on a hotel room. That one. No, actually, now that I think about it, American Express investigated it, because I didn't know it had been stolen. I'll be real honest. I don't think I'd call the cops. I don't think I would either. But from your place of work, a theft, it's not like they like like you said, digitally retrieved the numbers. I don't know if someone you go to your manager. But did the managers were there other instances of theft from that back room? No. Oh, no, no, no, no. They they knew they saw me put my wallet back there. But American Express did that whole thing and then tracked the dudes down who had done it. Did they get in trouble? Barely the American Express police. Yeah, barely. Right. Did they get in trouble at the office? They were customers. They were not employees. Gotcha. Gotcha. But so the the reason I think this woman probably did call the cops because she figured out it was Newman. This guy did call him. Yeah, he he did what they did to me. He's like, oh, look, I found your credit card. Come and get it. I very smart, very smart, because you would never think that guy is the one who used it. Very smart, actually. Actually, what's very smart is just credit card theft. You never get caught. Where am I going? Kristen, one. Hi, Yelena. The morning. Hey, this me. Yeah, hi. Who's this? This is Jorge. Yes, sir. What can I do for you? So I got a funny story. A long time listener, first time caller. Thank you. I was stationed in at the Pentagon in 2006. And I was getting liquor. I was getting a bunch of liquor at the liquor store. And when I was carrying it out, I dropped my wallet. And I remember it was like snowing, but I dropped my wallet. Didn't know it at the time, went back, had a good time, Super Bowl. Then I started a few days later, starting to look for my wallet, because I it was like the weekend or something and I really paid attention. Turns out the lady was some lady that worked at the liquor store, picked up my wallet and went on a shopping street at Pentagon Pentagon City Mall. Right. And so like I had everything in there, like work badges, everything I needed for for for charging and, you know, how it is, like drivers license. Yeah, right. No, I'm with you. I call I call the cops because she had spent thousands of dollars and I needed to I need to get a police report for the credit cards and also like file it with work because they're like, Hey, where's your ID? And anyway, long story short, I go in to talk to the military police because it was on that installation and they're like, Hey, do you want to press charges? At that point, I was so tired of like dealing with losing the cards and and having to deal with like getting new IDs. I was like, no, I don't want to miss any more work. I don't want to press charges. And they did find a lady because they had footage of her at the mall. Did she get busted though? Well, yeah, they well, because like I didn't want to press charges. It really didn't go very far. And essentially, like without me going any further, it got dropped. But because it was like over a threshold, right, it was considered. I would also think like, and this is where this is where my I thought you were going to go. I would think that because it's the military police that they're not going to let it go like it's going to like we're like, I don't know if it's an honor code or whatever it is. I mean, it's illegal. But I that's where I thought you were going to go is you didn't do anything. But the military police rang her up like no one's business. Hey, thank you, my friend. By the way, that's why you need to call the cops. Because you need the report for the credit card company. Like if you just call the credit card, this hasn't happened to me. Watch, it'll happen today. But if you just call the credit card company and go, hey, there's a false charge. Somebody, somebody ran up $30 at the at the giant. It wasn't me. I bet they cancel that out. But if you start running down a laundry list of four thousand dollars, five thousand dollars, I bet the credit card company at some point goes, you need to I need a police report. Because if not, I could go by a car right now and go, hey, somebody, somebody stole my card. Like at some point, you got to hit a dollar value where they're going to say, give me a report. But I thought Sarah said that the bank or the credit card company handled all that. They did. But how much money was it? Was it thousands of dollars? So when I make a big purchase, like say I'm buying a really expensive flight, they send me a code to my phone and say, did you approve this charge? Because it's more than, you know, 50 bucks at the giant store. I get that sometimes from university liquors. In Knoxville. What are you outfitting the entire party? Not like I was the no, no, but it's a bank card. So right. If it's your Bank of America, Citibank, whatever, they probably don't have that. So is it just best to default to the police? Just in case? You know, possibly. Thank you, Capital One. But then at the same time, you know, it's in my wallet. Confirmation to university liquors. We're saying all this and trying to figure out how best to handle it. In the face of the statement from the Anne Arundel County state's attorney who said use of a stolen credit card cases are hard to prove. Yeah. So what do you waste the time? What we really should be figuring out is what's the easiest way to steal a credit card and use it. It doesn't make any sense because everything's on camera. So they went to Kay's Jewelers. You're telling me you can't see who handed you the credit card for that transaction at that time? No. Can't prove it. The car was there, but not the driver. Hi, Elliott. The morning. Hey, this is me. Yeah. Hi. Who's this? This is Craig from DC. We spoke about baseball last week. Oh, very good. About like seven years ago, my wife and I were renovating our house in DC and we needed a new water heater. So we bought one at Home Depot and had the contractor pick it up. And like a month later, we're looking at our credit card bill and my wife and I are like, what is this 1800 bucks at Home Depot? We couldn't remember what it was. So we called the credit card company. They marked it as fraud that gave us our money back. And then like 90 days later, we remembered that it was us who had spent that money and it was us who had bought the water heater. And we had a moment to think about it, but we're like, yeah, we're just not going to call them back. And that's how I got a free water heater. Beautiful. No, I mean, now it makes a ton of sense. If all they're going to do is care, I should. I should go buy a car right now and then be like, hey, this is weird. Somebody showed up and bought a ma somebody stole my credit card and bought a Maserati. I need to cancel that out. Yeah. Maybe that's why it is a thank you, sir. Maybe that that's genius. That's really smart. And by the way, that happens all the time. I bet my life on that. And I believe him that they couldn't remember. But I don't know if like if I really sat and thought about it, I feel like I'd come up with, oh, yeah, we bought the water heater. Yeah. Did we spend $1,800 at Home Depot? I don't remember anything. Like that's a significant purchase. It's not like, did I go to all these bars on the crawl? Yeah, no, I'm with you. But I bet that happens all the time. No, you're right. That happened. That you may as well just throw an extra item in the bag at the checkout. Hi, Elliott. The morning. Is it me? Yeah. Hi. Who's this? Hey, my name is Caleb. Good morning, Bob. What's going on, dude? So you're going to find this interesting. Yeah, no, they don't care at all, even when you get into the thousands. I mean, I have a corporate card through them for my job. And the most recent fraud charge was about $27,000. And I called and they were like, OK, yeah, we're marking it down to a new card. That was it. And that's it. And after that, they just let it go and that's fine. Yeah, no investigation, no question, nothing. So here's a thank you, sir. Thank you. So here's my two takeaways from today. Number one, coworker gets up from their desk. Their purse is there with their wallet in it or they're just they took their wallet out. It's in the drawer. Take the credit card. And what's the other end? And Colt LaTeste tells you very hard to prove. Oh, OK. Steal their credit card. Number two, if Mercedes Benz of Arlington is listening today, I'm coming to buy a car. Because I would think that if you tried this multiple times, you'd get flagged and then I only need to buy a car once. That's why you maybe go big. Big, big purchase. Absolutely. Yeah. Or, you know, they say sometimes, sometimes, they'll buy like something small to test the card. So maybe, maybe what I do, I go buy a Mercedes and then a Bentley.
