According to this Dakota County Criminal Complaint a Minneapolis woman living in a Burnsville hotel stole just over $4000 from another mostly to pay for the five mobile phones she has on her account.
From the complaint:
On or about November 2, 2011, Lakeville police were contacted by the victim, C.W., stating that she wanted to report a fraud on her bank account. According to the victim, she recently noticed fraudulent charges after she was trying to balance her checkbook, and with the assistance of her bank, located the names of two people associated with the transactions that she knew.
Through the investigation, officers learned that the following charges were posted to the victim’s bank account using her account routing numbers, and without her consent.
November 29, 2010: $388.89 to Verizon Wireless
December 16, 2010: $324.08 to Verizon Wireless
January 13, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless
January 20, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless – Attempted Only
January 26, 2011: $374.96 to Verizon Wireless
February 14, 2011: $258.40 to Verizon Wireless
March 14, 2011: $266.85 to Verizon Wireless
April 18, 2011: $285.98 to Verizon Wireless
May 19, 2011: $286.00 to Verizon Wireless
August 19, 2011: $289.58 to Verizon Wireless
September 21, 2011: $276.90 to Verizon Wireless
October 4, 2011: $450.00 charge to Public Storage
October 20, 2011: $308.26 charge to Verizon Wireless
November 1, 2011: $131.60 charge to Public StorageTotal unauthorized transactions taken out of the victim’s bank account equaled $4,016.46.
There are a few oddities about this complaint…the first being that someone actually pays ~$280/month to Verizon for five mobile phones on one account. Are there that many people out there who pay such high wireless rates?! The other is that the woman discovering the fraudulent charges didn’t do so until she balanced her checkbook a year later. While few people still balance their checkbooks, how is it that someone wouldn’t notice several months where nearly $1000 was taken out of their checking account–over the course of a year?!
What do you have to say about this one? Are you more surprised that someone stole $4000 over the course of a year from someone’s checking out without them noticing or the fact that they wait until the end of the year to balance their checkbook? Maybe you’d like to comment on how high your mobile phone bill is (mine is less than $70). If you were paying for five phones do you think you’d allow the others to have such high cost plans? Whatever you have to say about this one go ahead and comment on as I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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May 4th, 2012 at 7:50 am
I’d like to laugh at this but years ago we were making double payments on a car for over year unknowingly. Not surprising since we haven’t balanced the checkbook since… since before we were married probably.
May 4th, 2012 at 8:15 am
$280/month isn’t unreasonable for 5 lines on verizon, that’s basically 5 smart phones with data or $56 a piece.
I can understand not balancing your checkbook for months, but even a quick glance at a quarterly statement you think one could detect missing a thousand dollars or more. And if you deal in quantities of money so large that you wouldn’t miss $1000 your personal banker should probably catch this.
May 4th, 2012 at 8:29 am
A couple of thoughts.
Having worked in a bank for a time, I am not surprised at all. I am guessing the victim probably is doing well enough fiscally to not have to be living check to check. The victim likely knowingly spends less than she makes and had little regard to the balance until she decided to clean things up.
The sad reality is how often this happens to married people, the only difference is that it is not a crime. We would see situations like this every day when the spouse is calling wondering where all of the money is (and the men pulled this on the wife just as much as the other way around). It was often the beginning of what would end up a failed marriage. First they ask for a separate account and you could just see the pattern as if it was clockwork. Sad.
The other thing I wonder about. If this woman had just rented a one bedroom apartment instead of living in a hotel, might she have been able to afford her phone bill? I know nothing about why someone would live in a hotel for months and maybe it is actually cheaper. Anyone got a thought on what that is about?
Lastly, who is using these 5 phones? Maybe they could have pitched in. Weird story.
May 4th, 2012 at 8:43 am
After reading the criminal report the most impressive/creepy part of this to me is that the Burnsville police were able to track this lady down using her IP address at the hotel. Had she walked over to the local Mcdonalds and used the free wireless she’d still be on the lam.
May 4th, 2012 at 8:51 am
see this is what happens when you use verizon! you have to steal to pay your bills!
May 4th, 2012 at 9:21 am
If you look the defendant up on the state court website, you’ll see that this is not her first trip to the rodeo.
May 4th, 2012 at 9:22 am
twoboot,
Since they can easily track the money going from the account into someone else’s phone payment, the IP part is just another contributing factor to prove the crime. I doubt she could have just told the police that the victim voluntarily paid her bill and they would have just believed her.
May 4th, 2012 at 11:19 am
5 Verizon lines, no additional features: $130.
5 Verizon lines + texting: $160.
5 Verizon lines + data: $280.
5 Verizon lines + data + texting: $310.
And that’s not to mention taxes and any overage charges. (It’s also assuming 2000 minutes a month.)
The good news in this is it gave me a reason to check Verizon’s current rates and I found a way to save some money on our plan thanks to a change in how they bill some of their features. Thanks Bill! :)
May 4th, 2012 at 12:27 pm
$191.28 Verizon/month. 3 phone lines, 1 unlimited text, 2 data plans. This includes the 17% discount I get from them due to an arrangement between my employer and Verizon. It also includes taxes. Sucks…………
May 5th, 2012 at 1:09 pm
I always thought Sprint was the most expensive, but we pay 230ish for four lines all smart phones with unlimited data and text on all 4 phones. THe number that Joey listed are higher than that. Huh.