Deli Customer Makes it Easy for Thieves to Swipe Her ID, Credit Card Info

So, the story begins at a sandwich shop.

I go in, order a turkey on wheat, lettuce, tomato, pickle, oregano, and a shot of spicy mustard. The employee, whom I guess is the manager, is frustrated. He’s making a sandwich all the while talking on his Bluetooth phone, trying to get one of his employees to come in since his 11 a.m. guy didn’t. 

I’m second in line behind a woman whose is facing away from me as stands at the checkout line. The manger is running a bit behind due to his noon employee being late. He’s making sandwiches and handling the cash register too. As we stand in line, he is ignoring the cash register, focusing instead on constructing the woman’s sandwich.

The woman looks of normal height and weight. She has long hair and wearing a sport jacket, jeans, and a pair of boots. She looks maybe 30-40 years old from the back but I can’t see her face so I really don’t know.

In this situation, men tend to fill in the blanks so I requested that my imagination paint a mental image of her face for me. In this scenario, the male’s libido often looks up to the brain and chips in on how the image should look, so by the time my brain e-mailed the image to me, she was a very pretty woman indeed. 

More on this in a moment.    

The sandwich manager is struggling to fill the order. While she waits, the woman decides to fill her drink at the fountain, which is located around the corner from the cash register. As she walks around the counter she leaves her wallet lying open on the counter. Her debit card is lying on top of the wallet in plain view. It was a debit card and I could clearly see all of the numbers. Fortunately, I’m out of practice on my memorization skills so I decided to see if I could photograph the information. I pulled out my phone, looked around, and then shot a photo to see if the numbers would show in the picture. As a bonus, her driver’s license, lying next to the debit card, was visible.

I got it all and no one saw me. In an instant, I had the victim’s address, debit card number, and date of birth. That’s all one needs to do really bad things to your credit.

(I deleted the file later that night after I bought a Lear Jet.

Most of us know this isn’t a smart move but sometimes we get really lazy—even for just a moment. She had no idea that I was even behind her and never turned around to look. The manager, who was absorbed in the construction of the sandwich, never looked up.  Finally, she did turn around and looked me straight in the eye—which leads me to the second point.

Too much of a good thing is not good at all. Mother Nature only allows for so much plastic surgery before you start to look like a cartoon character.   

Okay the real point here is don’t let your guard down. Standing in a checkout line is time to make sure no one has a sight-line on the debit-card swipe thing when you punch in those numbers. You can easily shift over to the left, blocking the view of everyone or do like I do and pull the Glock out and fire a warning shot.

Either way, remember that even really sneaky people need a little bit of opportunity. Don’t let them have it. Phones and cameras are everywhere. Always take a peek around and keep your wallet closed.