Here we go again...

You may recall from previous reading that Hugh and I have had to deal with several instances of identity theft. We’ve had credit cards missing from his wallet, my checking account number stolen, and even better: we’ve had our credit card numbers stolen while we still had the cards in our possession.

Hugh and I made big changes from all of this. We make all of our purchases every month on a credit card. All of them. We don’t write checks, and if we get some sort of bill in the mail that wants a check? Well, we call and pay it by credit card instead. We don’t use our debit cards and we protect our banking information as if we were the KGB.

Hugh’s brother, John got married back in December. Hugh and I were both members of the wedding party. After the meal at the reception, Hugh accompanied me upstairs to the room where the bridal party had gotten ready. I had brought along a spare dress to wear because the one that I had to wear for the ceremony was tight (baby bump!) and not flattering at all. As we walked into the room the assistant wedding coordinator approached me and asked me if I would check through my belongings and make sure that I wasn’t missing anything. She stated that she had walked in on a wedding guest exiting the room earlier (the room was supposed to be off limits). I walked over to my purse and noticed that it was unzipped, when I recalled making a point of zipping it up prior to the ceremony. I pulled out my wallet and discovered that my 3 credit cards were gone as was some cash. Hugh asked the girl if she would point out the person that she’d seen in the room, so they left.

I finished dressing and headed downstairs. I was so pissed. I honestly don’t think I can accurately describe the anger I was feeling. I found the assistant downstairs and asked where I could locate my husband. She told me that he and the head wedding coordinator (W.C.) were outside speaking to the woman that had “supposedly” taken the stuff. I walked outside and located Hugh and the W.C. speaking to a woman that was half inside her car. I actually heard Hugh say, “If you’ll just give us back what you took, we won’t call the police. I’m giving you 10 seconds to hand it over or I’m calling.”

The only thing she was willing to give up was an empty purse that she’d stolen from one of the other bridesmaid’s and obviously used to stash all of the cards she’d taken.

I’m going to take this moment to let you know that I’m omitting the part of the story where I might have possibly screamed obscenities at the woman and then been forcibly removed from the area by my husband picking me up and carrying me back over to the reception venue.

My parents came outside from the reception to see what was going on. My Dad went out and took his car and moved it to block the woman from being able to leave the property. Hugh called the police and the W.C. called the owner’s of the venue. The police show up and conduct a complete search of the car. The discovered several credit cards that didn’t belong to her and cash. They handcuffed her and her husband-who, by the way, hadn’t even realized hi s wife was missing for an hour from the dinner. Seriously??? Innocent my ass. They decided to arrest her and allow him to go since he claimed that he had no knowledge of what she was doing. The officer came in and instructed me to fill out a witness statement, and I know that another bridesmaid had to do the same. I believe that only one other credit card was taken and more cash. The officer informed us that we would have to cancel all of the credit cards (even though they were recovered) because they had been in her possession for a while. He also gave us the case number and a phone number to call to see what we would need to do to get our cash back.

What sucked, more than anything was the officer told the W.C. that an announcement had to be made to all of the guests at the reception informing them of the theft and asking them to check their belongings to see if they were missing anything. I really hated that for the bride and groom. Nobody deserves to have something like this happen at their wedding.

So, to end the story: Hugh and I got up early the morning after the wedding and sat in the hotel lobby for breakfast where he called the credit card companies and cancelled the cards. Hugh and I have the same credit card numbers on our Visa and Discover cards, so he had to cancel his as well. The woman has two previous felony convictions and was released on $68,000 bail. It only took about a week for us to get our cards replaced, but the big hassle is trying to remember every single account that we need to update with the new numbers. In fact, we forgot about our Ez-Tag account and it got suspended. Oh, and when it gets suspended you have to CALL. Ugh. Yuck. Just this past week we were having conversations trying to recall if we’d gotten everything updated. It’s been a big hassle.

A few days after Christmas I called the number that the deputy gave me to see about what hoops I’d have to go through to get our cash back. Well, I was informed that we won’t get it back until after the trial ends and then he went on to inform me that I will be subpoenaed to court for the trial. Inset sarcastic YAY!!!! I don’t consider taking off work and driving to Austin for a trial and good time. However, I feel like this woman needs to be held responsible for her actions. I don’t care if it’s a fine or jail time but I do think she needs to pay her debt to society. She’s obviously been convicted of crimes before and doesn’t seem to be learning right from wrong.

I’ll keep you updated on the situation, and if I do have to go to court I’ll definitely do an entry on that. Right now, Hugh and I feel like we’ve got targets on our back when it comes to our money and people trying to steal it.

Keep your hands off my money!