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Duo Steals Man's Wallet in Mall, Uses Credit Card While He's There

Information provided by the Fairlawn Police Department.

 

A New Philadelphia man had an appointment to get his computer fixed at 2:45 p.m. on Aug. 8 at the Apple Store in Summit Mall, according to a Fairlawn police report. When he got to the store, he put his wallet in his laptop bag and sat down on a stool at the repair station.

Surveillance footage saw a woman, described by police as Hispanic with long brown/black hair wearing jeans and a white long sleeve shirt, sit down next to him. A man, described by police as Indian, wearing a black shirt and dark pants, stood between the victim and the woman.

The man bent down, reached into the man's laptop bag, grabbed the wallet and put it in the woman's purse. The duo then left the store, the report said.

The victim's wife called him at 5 p.m. and said American Express had called regarding unusual transactions on the card. That's when the man realized his wallet was gone.

Two transactions were made at the Apple Store: one at 4:21 p.m. for $1,808.38 and the other at 4:26 p.m. for $882.89. A charge of $1,035 was attempted at the Buckle store at 4:46, but it was declined.

Surveillance footage from the Buckle showed it was the same duo trying to use the man's card.

The man has since canceled all his credit cards and bank accounts, and police are still investigating.

Related Topics: Crime, Theft, and fairlawn police department

Sharon Copley

12:37 pm on Thursday, August 9, 2012

Apple employees selling the products to the thieves should have asked for more ID. Any business making larger dollar sales are foolish not to require such as a driver's license from a buyer when so many credit cards are stolen these days. Also holders of credit cards should have caps on purchases through their credit card companies that will send out a request for further ID when the card is applied to higher dollar sales.

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Tou

10:25 am on Friday, August 10, 2012

With today's technology, I think fingerprint scanning should be mandatory for all credit card usage! That would cut down credit card theft by 100 percent.

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