If you read my series, Sometimes I Wish I Was a Cat, then you know that I have recently started working at home. In addition to my amazing job with Geauga News/tEkk3, I also work part time at Pier 1 Imports in Solon. My boyfriend works in Solon as well. We are currently sharing one car. So, sometimes I take him to work and then I go to Panera and work from there until I have to be at Pier 1.
Today, I walked into Panera, ordered my lunch, and found a booth in the back with an outlet nearby. I set up my laptop, put in my earbuds, and dove into my work for the next four hours. This was the fourth time that I had worked from Panera, but the first time that I had actually remembered to bring my earbuds. I was not distracted by the other people eating their lunch with friends and co-workers, or by the small children that were not able to sit still for the short time their mother wanted to sit down and eat lunch.
A few weeks ago, during my first work session at Panera, I was not quite so organized. I choose a table in the middle of the restaurant, forgot my earbuds at home, and didn’t order my food until it was almost time for me to go to work over at Pier 1. I finished my meal, packed up my stuff, and went to Pier 1. I brought my laptop inside so it would be safe in the AC and not in my hot car for the next four hours.
My manager and I were the only ones working that Friday night, and we were pretty busy. The four hour shift went by pretty quickly. I made the 20 minute drive home, unpacked my computer, and logged on so that I could log my hours and invoice my company for my time worked that week. Each week as I fill out my invoice, I also log into my bank account. I mark the previous week’s invoice as paid once I make sure it has posted to my account. So, I pull up middlefieldbank.com and, much to my surprise, my account balance was negative $199.60. I scroll down the page only to see several pending transactions; one for $250, another for $300, $301.70, $1.00 pre-authorization at a gas station, and my charge from my lunch earlier at Panera. As you can imagine, I am speechless and very confused.
WHAT IS GOING ON?
I suddenly realized that I was the victim of a crime.
I walk over to my laptop case to look for my wallet, which I had placed there when leaving Panera. GONE! Are you kidding me? I suddenly realized that I was the victim of a crime. My boyfriend looked up a phone number for me to call to report my credit card stolen while I studied the pending charges on my account, trying to figure out how this could have happened. Luckily, almost every charge to my account shows up immediately online as a pending charge. If that did not happen, I may not have known about these fraudulent charges to my account until the following week when I checked my account again. I made that call to cancel my card, then called the police department. They told me that we had to come in to file a report.
So, back in the car, another 20 minute drive to go fill out the police report. The officer I met was very nice and very helpful. I was shaking because I was so angry. I could not believe that this had happened to me. How could someone just spend my hard earned money like that? Why me? I do not have any credit cards, so with all of my money gone and my account overdrawn, I had no idea what I was going to do. How would I get gas to put in my vehicle? How would I buy groceries? How would I pay my bills?
The next morning, we got up and went straight to The Middlefield Banking Company branch in Newbury at 8 a.m. when they opened. I explained to them what happened and they got right to work trying to help me fix the situation. They could see that I was clearly shaken and upset. The ladies there were very understanding and talked me through the process we had to take to get my money back and get a new bank card. Kathy got on the phone with the bookkeeping department to find out what they needed to do. I verbally disputed the charges and they were able to look up the exact times and locations of each fraudulent charge to my account. They told me two other charges were attempted and declined. All of the charges equalled more than $1000 in less than one hour. I passed all of that information along to the officer on my case, which helped him immensely in gathering video footage from each location.
I left the bank feeling very relieved.
Kathy let me know that I needed to come back in on Monday to fill out some paperwork that the bookkeeping department was going to send over. She also let me know that one of the features of my account was that the bank would cover up to $400 if my account was overdrawn. So, I was able to withdraw some cash to get me through the weekend. She explained to me that the bank would give me provisional credit to cover the fraudulent charges and that I should have my money back pretty quickly. I left the bank feeling very relieved.
On Monday, we made our way back to the bank and sat down with Kathy. She had a meeting to get to, so we went over to Helen’s office to handle this situation. I opened my account with Helen a few months prior to this, so I was glad to sit down and talk to her again. She is a lovely lady. We actually went into the bank for two reasons that day; to fill out my dispute paperwork and for my boyfriend to open a checking account as well. Helen was able to handle both of these requests for us. She let me know that the bank had up to 10 days to get my money into my account but they usually can get it done much faster. They definitely came through for me. I had all of my money back on Wednesday. TWO DAYS!!
Every time I have gone into the Newbury branch, I have been greeted with a smile, had all of my needs met, and left a happy customer (with a Dum Dum sucker)! The ladies at Middlefield Bank made my horrible situation a lot easier to deal with. I felt at ease that they would take care of me and do everything they could to make me happy and get my money back into my account as quickly as possible. I would like to say thank you to everyone at The Middlefield Banking Company that helped me out.
If you have any banking needs, I highly recommend The Middlefield Banking Company. Tell them Stacey from Geauga News sent you!
Here is a video of the thieves and the people who spent the gift card that were purchased with my credit card. If you recognize these people, please contact the Solon Police Department.
