Identity Secure

Have you seen that commercial? The one where the guy plasters his social security number on a city bus because he's so confident his company will keep his identity safe? I've never paid all that much attention to it because I've always been of the mind that something like that could never happen to me.

Thankfully it hasn't. Yet. Yesterday, however, we got a phone call from the Fraud Department at Chase. (And major kudos to them for being the ones to contact us.) Apparently someone attempted to spend $600 at a Florida Wal-Mart Monday followed by a trip to the Home Depot yesterday morning.

First of all, you'll remember we came home from Florida on Sunday. So, unless my husband made some major detours on his travels this week, we were most certainly NOT in Florida on Monday or yesterday. Moreover, as for the Home Depot charge and as my husband told the kind Chase lady, "[His] wife wouldn't be caught dead in a Home Depot." OK, so sometimes I go to HD just because I'm along for the ride, but you must know that a princess queen does not do her own home repair. So, although the HD charges were not mine, I do have to own up to the Dover Publications and Learning Things charges. Charges I had not yet divulged to TravelDaddy. Incidentally, I've given up on calling him midday and beginning the conversation with, "Don't be mad at me, but I just dropped a boatload of money on more books and curriculum." He's totally on to that one. Now I just wait for the blessed brown truck to pull up and give me my package. Then, package in hand, I smile at him and say, "These are just a few items for the educational betterment of your precious children. You do want them to be smart, don't you?" Seriously, this might be an addiction.

Anyway. So the Chase cards are cut up, new ones on the way, and that's the end of that. Chase will do no further investigation since there were no actual fraudulent charges that went through. If we wanted to launch our own investigation, though, it would be easy peasy. We only used the card twice in Florida, and I'm really good with names. If Horatio Cane only knew how good I was, he'd want me for his partner. Of course, if I was his partner, I'd snatch those shiny sunglasses off of his big head, hurl them to the ground, and stomp them into little, tiny pieces. I digress...

We used the card at the resort gift shop where we spent $20 on some postcards and trading pins. Michael was our cashier. I remember his name because, well, duh, my son is Michael. Plus, this Michael was very amiable and helpful. However, he looked to be only a couple years this side of puberty and probably does not possess the wherewithal to pull off such a crime.

Then there was Brian at Landry's. (And, no, I'm not telling how much we dropped on that meal.) He was a very pleasant waiter or server or whatever, but of the two gentleman, he was the only one who scored some alone time with our credit card. So my money's definitely on him. Not that I'm letting him have it. The money, that is.