Your identity has been stolen. You are out thousands of dollars, and dozens of hours spent on the phone and sending information back and forth to various credit card companies. You imagine it's all over. And then, one day, you're at a department store and you look up into the face of the woman who stole your identity in the first place. What are the odds?
But that's what happened to Michelle McCambridge, a clerk at a J.C.Penney in Washington State. When bills turned up at her house totaling thousands of dollars in purchases, she first called the credit companies to report the abuse, and then she wisely contacted the stores and asked for the surveillance tapes for the time around the date of purchase on the receipt.
When she studied the tapes, she discovered one person who showed up in all of them, so she memorized the face and the physical characteristics of this woman until she felt she would know her on sight.
And know her she did. One day not long after her identity theft ordeal, the woman stood before her at her counter in Penney's, applying for instant credit. McCambridge asked for her ID (standard procedure when opening an account) and went to another cash register where she called security. Turns out, the woman was applying for credit using the name and driver's license of a woman whose purse had been stolen days before.
Thanks to McCambridge's quick thinking, the woman was arrested. Turns out she was involved in several identity theft schemes, bank fraud, and Social Security number misuse and faces up to 25 years in prison. All because she came face to face with one victim who refused to be victimized. To read more about this case see the Chicago Tribune who pointed this story out.
Take charge of your credit, and identity -before someone else does!
But that's what happened to Michelle McCambridge, a clerk at a J.C.Penney in Washington State. When bills turned up at her house totaling thousands of dollars in purchases, she first called the credit companies to report the abuse, and then she wisely contacted the stores and asked for the surveillance tapes for the time around the date of purchase on the receipt.
When she studied the tapes, she discovered one person who showed up in all of them, so she memorized the face and the physical characteristics of this woman until she felt she would know her on sight.
And know her she did. One day not long after her identity theft ordeal, the woman stood before her at her counter in Penney's, applying for instant credit. McCambridge asked for her ID (standard procedure when opening an account) and went to another cash register where she called security. Turns out, the woman was applying for credit using the name and driver's license of a woman whose purse had been stolen days before.
Thanks to McCambridge's quick thinking, the woman was arrested. Turns out she was involved in several identity theft schemes, bank fraud, and Social Security number misuse and faces up to 25 years in prison. All because she came face to face with one victim who refused to be victimized. To read more about this case see the Chicago Tribune who pointed this story out.
Take charge of your credit, and identity -before someone else does!
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Wow, way to be proactive with your identity! Perhaps if more consumers were take-charge like Michelle McCambridge, there would be fewer identity thieves in the world!
my mom was robbed on September 24th also. it was in broad daylight, about 3pm, in front of the Willow Creek Apartments in Hazel Dell, north of Vancouver, Washington, in Clark County.
the man was not apprehended.
she only saw his back, and he was quite strong and determined.
luckily, he tossed the purse in the bushes. only cash was stolen.
description:
a man
blond hair with a normal cut
thin
tall...anywhere from 5'7 up
wearing a long-sleeved cream-colored jacket, and tan pants that were not baggy or tight.
assumed to be an adult, and not old...not grey.
contact me or the clark county sheriffs dept. if you saw or know anything.