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Identity Thief Apprehended By Victim
ewhac writes "Karen Lodrick was entering her sixth month of hell dealing with the repercussions of having her identity stolen and used to loot her accounts. But while she was waiting for a beverage, there standing in line was the woman who appeared on Wells Fargo security video emptying her accounts. What followed was a 45 minute chase through San Francisco streets that ended with the thief being taken into custody by police."
It was clear Nelson had targeted her: Lodrick changed bank accounts and identification numbers, only to find that Nelson had again broken into her mail and stolen the new information and was still after her accounts.
Where the hell were the postal service inspectors? The USPS has an entire police force for dealing with this sort of stuff. I can see it now, down at USPS Homedonut Protection Service:
"Hey Billy-Bob, we had a carrier's keys stolen. Think we should do something?"
"Nah, Bo-Billy, we gots terrorists to watch out for."
"But we have a report of identity theft from..."
"T-E-R-R-I-S-T-S. We gots CQB trainin' this afternoon."
She was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Harold Kahn to the 44 days she had already served in county jail and three years' probation.
What about mail fraud? Theft of mail?
Nelson also was ordered to make restitution in an amount to be determined by the court and to stay away from Lodrick.
"Amount to be determined"? How about ALL OF IT?
Those were the terms of a plea bargain negotiated by Assistant District Attorney Reve Bautista with Nelson's public defender, Christopher Hite.
The DA had her on TAPE using someone else's bank account. It was clearly planned and multiple victims were involved. They no doubt could have searched her properties and found the mail, the stolen keys, etc. The goods that were charged either involved her going to stores (where she'd be on camera) or mail order / online, where the goods had to be delivered somewhere (and the cops could have been waiting for her to pick up.)
Why in god's name did they need to plea-bargain? Why does it always seem that to scam artists, identity thieves, and drunk drivers the justice system is a revolving door?
Please help metamoderate.
Jesus Christ, get some fucking perspective.
Why not the death penalty? Seriously, what social use is there for anyone who'd commit identity theft? We've filled our jails with potheads - who hurt nobody and subtract nothing from society, indeed include many of our most artistically accomplished people - and yet the penalty for stealing tens of thousands through identity theft, and running the victims through months of hell - is probation? It should be at minimum 20 years in jail.
"with their freedom lost all virtue lose" - Milton
It's inexcusable to say that murder is ever an appropriate recourse after crime. But then, I don't support capital punishment. For the simple reason that, as terrible as Identity Theft is, it's not as final as murder.
Of course she could have, this is America. You can sue McDonald's for making you a fat, lazy dumbass! You can sue for cutting your hand on shards of glass from the window you shattered while breaking into someone's house. You can press charges if your idiotic kid falls out of a tree in your neighbor's yard or drowns in their pool while trespassing. Smell that? That's stupidity, it replaced freedom a long time ago in this country.
"He who can destroy a thing, controls a thing." --Paul Atreides, Dune
Funny, TFA alluded to the idea of a "legal system" to punish the girl with something called "probation", which apparently involves being scolded and then set free. According to TFA, it was at least the second time this "legal system" had to impose this severe penalty.
[i]So you're a moral relativist?[/i] How could any responsible and culturally literate individual not be somewhat of a relativist? Given that there is never any absolutes and no action has any inherent meaning, it's time we stepped out of the dark ages.
I'm not saying we should go around killing people for petty crimes, or even murder, but there are a lot of sociopaths and absolute shitbags that only leech off society. You can, maybe, rehabilitate the shitbags, but the sociopaths I'm not so sure about.
Only to a point. I'm willing to bet that very few criminals ever go through the hassle of pulling off credit card fraud once
Sure, for a single $250 charge, there's very little benefit. But if that person may be doing it with ten different cards. And that person may be willing to name an accomplice, or reveal the hole they are using to get names and numbers. Chances are, they'd be saving a lot more than just $250.
Hell, can you imagine the PR on the commercials by getting their customer to talk about how the credit card company rode in like an avenging angel and smote the identity thief who made them feel scared, and unsafe? How many hours the customer spent changing credit card numbers, and trying to clean up their credit rating? And how the credit card company was willing to do this over a simple $50 charge?
You have obviously never been burgled. It's even more obvious that if you have, you weren't home when it happened. The fear and degradation of not being able to protect yourself, your family, or your home will haunt you for the rest of your life. You may never sleep well again.
"Some asshole" who has the balls to walk in your front door and carry out your stereo in front of you is just as likely to tie you up and put a bullet in your head to prevent you from talking about it. You aren't shooting someone to prevent your property from being stolen: you're shooting someone to prevent them from doing something other than just stealing your property. If they have violated the sanctity of your home, the step to violating your right to life is not too far off.