As mentioned mid-week the road is calling and an out of state travel schedule is currently being tended to… BUT, a great personal story from last week is worth a remote review — enjoy!
What follows is the personal story from last weekend that once again highlights the handiness of our Vault – but should also pose as a warning for those possible gym rats – present party included…
Personal Theft Story
At approximately 10:00 am Saturday October 20th – a quick work out was in the cards as there was a gap between the 13 year old’s tennis match and the 10 year old’s need to be transported …..
After carefully parking underground -(tons of little guys in the YMCA garage due to soccer being moved indoors) – Wallet tossed into the cup holder, along with the car keys and a tug of the small towel to cover both items from outsiders view (unsuccessfully) …. doors locked from external key pad and heading to the stairs to climb to the ground floor…. a bad guys was scoping …
Retuning about 10:30 am, grabbing car keys and sticking wallet into the pocket the day continued –
At 10:40, 10:41 and 10:42 am three charges of $500 each (gift cards) were charged to two separate cards after the third attempt to the same card set off a fraud alert…
Funny call –
With cell phone text notification of a $500+ charge to a local grocery store – a “no” text response returned a texted phone number which was casually called …
“Fraud services, are you in possession of your card” …. Yes, of course I am ? NOPE
Three cards were missing, but the wallet was otherwise EXACTLY kept in tact so as not to alert – worked like a champ!
Four minutes later – first stolen and charged credit card is turned off – other two cards are debit cards …. AND no idea what number to call …
Vault Savior again
No idea of either debit credit card number…. no idea what phone number to call – After a quick opening of the Personal Vault which had pictures of the cards both front and back – Cards turned off ! Whew– Thank you Personal Vault !
Do you have your cards saved in your Vault?
Police Response and Report – The rest of the story –
Later in the day a full Police report was filed, grocery location and YMCA garage have full video surveillance and with such a detailed time line, an easy find ? .. will update in the future —
Fellow gym rats, this is a very common situation, especially for guys … for whatever reason – guess we tend to separate ourselves from our wallets and keys during workouts-
According to the friendly female Police officer Gonzales, this exact event occurs all the time all over the city at Gyms, and happened twice the prior weekend at my gym – fortunately this was the first incident of this weekend reported.
These are very specialized thieves that know exactly what they are doing and know how to quickly get fast cash – No they didn’t want the car, just the quick money, and on to the next unsuspecting person, hopefully not you after this story!
Have a Great “Safer Wallet” Day!
John A. Kvale CFA, CFP