Have you ever had your credit card stolen? It can be a really sinking feeling to look at a credit card statement and see a bunch of charges you didn’t make.

I’ve actually had my credit card numbers stolen a few times even though I never actually misplaced the cards. Nowadays, a lot of fraudulent charges happen online. Thankfully, my credit card company has always been good about refunding the charges.

Imagine going on a road trip to visit family for the holidays. What would you do if someone at a gas station along the way stole your credit card and charged hundreds of dollars? Would you let the credit card company or your bank handle it, or would you call the police?

In this story, one person is in this exact situation, and they try calling the gas station where the credit card was stolen. When that doesn’t work, they call the police, not really expecting them to do anything about it.

Keep reading to see what happens.

Steal my money and then become hostile when I ask for a refund? Have fun with that felony on your record.

This happened a few years ago right after I graduated college.

I would make an 8 hour drive home a few times a year to see family, usually over the holidays. During these trips, There was only wilderness, fields, mountains, and tiny towns along the way.

During one of these trips, I stopped at a gas station to get some food and I apparently lost my debit card (or it was stolen). It was a card I never used and looked identical to my main one, so I didn’t notice it missing until later when I get a call from my bank and I see my account over drafted.

Being fresh out of college making $12/hr, the $400 was a huge deal.

OP explains why she didn’t want to do a chargeback.

I worked at a credit card processor at the time, so I had a very unusual familiarity with how credit card transactions worked (this was a debit card, but ran as credit).

I could have done a chargeback, of course, but I knew that merchants were fined $15 for each chargeback (on top of the return) and got a ding on their “record” with Visa/MC/AMEX. If they had too many chargebacks they would have their processing revoked and incur heavy fines.

Merchants are usually mom and pop shops and are usually innocent in the matter, so I decide to give them a call.

This sounds like a good idea.

Also, the charges all came from the same gas station that I lost it at, so I suspected it was an employee who found/stole my card and was stupid enough to use it at work.

I wanted to let the manager/owners know so they could keep an eye out for unscrupulous employees.

Employee theft is unfortunately common and is not brought to light until a customer brings it up.

I thought I would just give them a call and ask for the refund, easy.

She explained the situation.

I call and a woman answers. I ask to speak with a manager, and she says she is the manager.

I explain that I had lost my card at that location and someone had later used my card there. I said I didn’t want to accuse anyone, but I think one of her employees had the card and she may want to investigate. I also said I’d like a return for all the purchases to save them the hassle of a chargeback.

When I usually work with managers in this situation, they’re very willing to help and take employee theft very seriously.

Instead I’m met with hostility and insults.

This woman sounds crazy.

She told me I probably deserved it for losing my card in the first place and not noticing, and I deserved this “lesson.”

She interrupted me and told me to basically go hurt myself and none of her employees would steal.

Getting a bad feeling, I ask for the number of the owner.

She says there is no owner… what?

This would be really upsetting.

By now I’m shaking in anger, so I tell her I’m calling the police and hang up.

She tries to call back, and I don’t answer.

By now I’m angry crying. I have a feeling I know who did it, but now I need to prove it.

I had no intention of calling the cops because what cops care about some petty credit card theft? It’s incredibly hard to prove and most cops have murder and stuff to worry about.

It was a very small town.

Lucky for me, this is in the middle of nowhere, population 100 or something.

First, I call my bank and ask if they have the record of the exact times the card was used.

They gave me the times down to the minute.

I then call the police and get a very friendly women. It seems she’s not busy and actually listens to my story, including the hostile manager.

This lady sounds very helpful.

I ask if she’s able to go look at the surveillance tapes or something.

She says the store is 5 minutes away and she will stop by.

I guess she felt sorry for me or was bored, but I’ll take it.

She says she’ll give me call if she finds anything.

I eagerly await her call, but was not expecting much.

This is awesome!

A couple days go by, and I get a call from the nice officer lady. She says that she went by the store and reviewed the footage. At the exact times I told her, the cameras caught the hostile manager making the purchases signing receipts for the exact same amounts with a card that looked exactly like mine.

Even better, they were going to charge her with felony Identity theft since making purchases on someone’s card without permission is identity theft on top of monetary theft (at least in my state).

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They asked if I wanted any restitution, but my bank had refunded me the stolen money so I declined.

I was absolutely not expecting a cop to go out of their way to help me, and I was definitely not expecting it to result to an arrest!

This would feel empowering.

I felt a sense of pride for actually sticking up for myself and not just taking the money from my bank and letting the thief go.

I’m a pretty small and non-confrontational person, but that day I felt like a superhero.

If she’d been nice and worked with me or even just apologized and done the returns I would not have called the cops.

Because she was so rude and unhelpful she got a felony instead.

I knew the manager was responsible!

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a betting shop employee who is asked the dreaded question “don’t you know who I am?”

Let’s see how Reddit responded to this story.

One person has a theory.

This is probably true.

I don’t think she actually talked to the thief again, but this would’ve been funny.

Refunding money doesn’t stop the thieves from stealing again.

When I’m picturing this story, I’m picturing a little town like Mayberry from the old Andy Griffith Show. If you’re not familiar with the show, it was a very small town with one sheriff and one bumbling deputy. Anyway, if it was a small town like that, the police officer OP talked to probably didn’t have a lot going on and probably did know everyone in town.

I assume the officer was bored and also didn’t have a very hard time figuring out who was responsible. Especially knowing the exact times of the transaction and the amounts, it wouldn’t be hard to figure out with security footage.

The thief clearly wasn’t very bright. Claiming the store didn’t have an owner made her seem really stupid too. Clearly the store has an owner. She was obviously suspect number one.

I’m glad that not only did OP get her money back, but the thief also faced serious consequences.