Crime watch update!

I found out how someone managed to withdraw money from my bank account. A few days ago Jeff was reading Torrance's local paper adorably named the Daily Breeze and found an article about a recent rash of ATM card fraud committed by a guy working at an Arco gas station in nearby Redondo Beach.

As I was reading the article and thinking about the location, Prospect and PCH, I realize that we went there once to get a bottle of water before going to the beach. So, I looked up the charge in my bank statements and found it on March 18th. Aha! Exactly during the time period that this guy was working there and stealing card numbers and PINs.

If you're not familiar with Arco/AMPM, it's a low cost gas chain owned by the much larger BP. They only take ATM and cash, no credit. So anyone who bought gas there was basically handing over all the information this guy needed to steal money. All he had to do was take that information and put it on a card with a magnetic stripe and literally take it to the bank.

The best part is that this guy gave a fake name, "Erick Volonski ", fake driver's license and fake address to get the job at this gas station. I think its a safe assumption that the owner of the gas station, a franchise owner affiliated with BP, didn't do even one smidgen of pre-employment screening. Had the owner taken a small, inexpensive amount of precaution over 1,000 of his customers wouldn't have been ripped off.

And yes, I'm sure everyone got their money back from their various banks. But that does come at a price. Banks carry insurance to cover theft, as well as run hugely expensive "investigative" departments for the sole purpose of investigating these and other types of crimes. If the banks never recover the stolen money (and surely they won't), our charges and fees go up. Essentially, the innocent people in this story did get their money back RIGHT NOW but will end up paying for it in the future.

Now that I'm aware of the hiring standards employed by BP and it's affiliates, I will never, ever use their stores. I will also never use my ATM card as anything but 'credit'. It's too risky. If you can't pay credit or cash, walk away and find somewhere else.

And because the guy who is suspected to have committed this crime has mysteriously disappeared with over 200,000 dollars from totally innocent people, I'm asking you to just look and see if you know these people. You never know. The internet is a weird place.

If you recognize either of these men please call the Redondo Beach police at 310-379-2477.

You can read the letter I wrote to the writer of the original article here. If this happened to you in the past few weeks and you've been to this store, please call the Redondo Beach police to make a report.

Oh! And the bad news is that it isn't the same person who stole my unemployment check. Technically my ATM card and PIN were stolen before the unemployment check ever went missing. Two thieves in a matter of four weeks! Huh!

I'm cuddly, bitch.

AND I play DVDs. Twofer.

Faicbuk.

When I was 15 I fell in love for the very first time. Allen. Allen had long blond hair, he made me watch Southpark for the first time, he took me paintballing. Allen and I dated for over a year. We even spent Y2K making out in his parents closet. Best potential end of the world date ever.

But eventually we grew apart. And by grew apart I mean he went to church camp and came back with a different girlfriend. A girl named Shelby. A girl who was 13 or 14 at the time. We were 16 and in high school. This girl was still in junior high. As far as I was concerned I'd just been dumped for an infant.

So, I hated this girl, naturally. In fact, Shelby if you're reading this I hope you get leprosy. No, wait, that's not right. I know, I know. I hope you already have leprosy. I hope your fingers have fallen off and you're browsing the web with one of those sticks attached to your forehead with a suction cup.

The summer after all this happened Allen and the infant took a break. During that break a girl I had known all my life slept with Allen. And not just had sex with him but took his virginity.

So, I hated this girl too. We all hated her. We called her and screamed SLUT!!!! when she answered. We drove by her house and threw eggs at her car. I had known this girl since second grade and taking the virginity of my first love was the worst thing that ever happened to me. And I made her feel like it was the worst thing she'd ever done.

But eventually this all blew over and my friends and I stopped egging cars and prank calling people. The girl who had betrayed me eventually went on to sleep with pretty much every one else I ever dated. And I hated her for that too. Who wouldn't hate someone who comes around behind you and sleeps with boys you never got to sleep with? The one boy I actually did sleep with in high school never slept with her. I don't think.

My point is that this girl asked to be my friend on Facebook.

And my initial reaction was okay, sure. But then I got to thinking about what kind of balls she has to even make that request.

It's been seven years since we graduated and I should probably have forgotten about it. I'm sure she probably has. However, there are just some things that can never be forgiven and I think pretending to be my friend and then sleeping with my first love is one of them.

So, denied, bitch. If I lived closer I'd egg your car again.