Held Up At Gunpoint

Envision this: It’s Saturday night, Lotto night, and you want to play it. You have big dreams of winning the jack pot. So you stop at your ATM to get out some cash and then you go to the store to buy your tickets. You get your tickets and you get back in your car. You go to your next destination. In this case, you go and you get out of your car. You’ve been there many times before without incident. This time, however, it’s rather isolated and you’re alone. You probably think nothing of it as you’ve been there a thousand times before and it’s always been safe. This time, however, as you’re walking into the building, a car drives up. You don’t think much of it—you think it’s security. However, a guy with a gun hops out of the car sticks the gun in your face, yanks your cell phone out of your hand and hurls it to the ground and smashes it. Then he demands all your cash or else. This happened to my oldest son last Saturday night. He works a lot of side computer jobs so he goes all over town, and it seems, even late at night on Saturdays. Luckily, the robber didn’t hurt my son and he only got $35 in cash which is all my son had on him. He didn’t take the credit cards or anything else. The police took what was left of my son’s cell phone to look for the thief’s prints. The robber was caught later this week. It turns out that the man was waiting at the ATM, killing time before he went to rob a house (nice guy, right?) When he saw that my son got out cash, he followed him. He waited while my son went into the store where there were several other people. Then when my son drove away again, the guy followed him again. He was waiting until my son stopped somewhere secluded to make his move. Supposedly this guy was from Miami and likes to come up to Broward (our county - where Ft. Lauderdale is) to rob people who get out cash at ATMs. I’ve heard about things like this from the Internet and whereas I read them and went yeah yeah, I’ll keep an eye out while I go to the ATM, I really thought it was just one of those paranoid emails that circulate. For all I know, that’s how the thief got the idea. I have to wonder if stealing $35 was worth serving years in prison (I don’t know how many the guy will get). I’m also not sure if they caught the thief because of my son or if they caught him later and connected him because of his prints on the cell phone. I stop at the ATM a lot. I usually only get out $20, just enough to get lunch. I watch the people around me, and so far, no one gave me bad vibes and so far, I’ve not noticed someone following me. The son that got robbed is a really bright guy, so if he didn’t notice, I have to think he’s not the only one who could fall prey. We, his family and friends, feel blessed that our Luke is okay. Not only do we love him dearly, but he has a wife and two small children depending on him. What a tragedy this could have been. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

I'm an identity theft victim - ugh!

Ugh! I'm an identity theft victim. I was paid yesterday from the day job and also my TEB check finally cleared and went in, so I thought I had plenty of money in my account to pay my bills plus have a little left over for fun and groceries. This morning DD2 and I went to the Flea Market, bought a few things, and then we bought groceries with no problem. But when I went to fill up my empty gas tank, my card declined. I knew I had well over a thousand dollars in the account, so I was flabbergasted. I drove home on fumes instead of to my original destination in case I wouldn't be able to get gas and not be able to get home later. Then I called my bank. It turns out that they blocked my account bcause some bozo tried to buy electronics worth $761.09 this morning while I was still sleeping. Oi! Now my bank has to close my account to protect me. Since it's the weekend my bank's already closed and won't reopen till Monday so I can't get a new card for my new account number until then. As we're so crazy at work and I can't possibly take time off there, I just had the bank express my card to my house but that means I may not get it till Tuesday or Wednesday. I called the electronics company and they said they'd noticed the transaction was fraudulent so they already canceled it. I have to applaud both the bank and the merchant. I'm grateful for the diligence of both. However, I'm just a little stressed from all the hassle. The lady at the bank opened my card long enough for me to fill up my gas tank and get some cash out of the ATM before closing it permanently (well, the old account - I'll still get the new one in a few days.) I normally don't post twice in one day, but I had to get this off my chest. I had planned to write all day, but I tend not to be able to write when I get upset. I know everything has been settled as well as can be expected so I'm settling down. I need to write my blogs and schedule them for the week anyway and to visit my usual blogs and maybe hop around to a few new ones. Then hopefully, I'll get in the mood to write after all. I started a new story this morning that I'm excited about and I wanted to make some headway on it this weekend. I feel like hitting some heavy chocolate. I NEED chocolate. I have to have chocolate. I want to dive in a big vat of chocolate. On a brighter note, I took DD2 to see "Mama Mia" last night and it was laugh out loud funny. We both loved it and DD2 usually doesn't like musicals. I don't know why the sight of Pierce Brosnan singing - I mean singing in a musical where he was dancing around - struck me as so funny. He was a comedian of sorts in Remington Steele, but in a quieter way. Anyway, I laughed so hard I broke out into a coughing fit and began choking. At the end of the movie, everyone in the theater stood and applauded. I've not seen that happen in a long time. So at least I had a spot of fun this weekend. It wasn't a total waste.