In Reply to: Warning -motorbikes & pickpockets posted by Colleen on Monday, 21. June 2010 at 01:52 Bali Time:
Within a very short period of time of us finding out what had happened & the girls going to the police station - The A -- hole who stolen Liz purse or a friend of their's had gone to a Circle K store in Kuta & completely cleared out her bank account.It was a debit card she had stolen that was in her purse & because of the stress of it all she didn't immediately remember at first that it was in her purse.To make matters worse her pay had only recently gone in.
Obviously the thief & his associates could not use the card at an ATM because they did not have the password BUT some local Richard Cranium employee at a Kuta Circle K store accepted a fake signature from someone who had Liz -Aussie Commonwealth bank debit card & obviously got away with being a female Aussie ! Within less than 30 minutes they rang up around $1000 in multiple purchases.They must have had a hell of party that night !
Anyway the bank HAS been notified & by the time we spoken to them they had already thought something was wrong & closed the account. They said everything can be sorted out when the girls get back home.Hopefully that means Liz will get her money back BUT when you think of it it also means that some owner of the a Circle K store in Kuta is going to lose around $1000 because their stupid employee accepted a fake signature.No doubt this person will end up losing their job as a result ! Liz is only a young girl in her early 20's who can't afford to lose so much money. I realise that there are 2 sides to every story & I feel sorry in some way for th Circle K employee who is probably around the same age as her BUT I am still annoyed at what happened.
Naturally my heart goes out to Liz but I also feel sorry for the store owner.Once again a warning - be damn careful when in Bali carrying any cash or cards around with you.You never think it's gonna happen to you or yours but it can.
Part of our frustration is the multiple sms going back & forth from Bali & trying to get passwords,log on details & bank account numbers by the time we have full details the banks had closed & nothing could be done over the counter for them to get money from us quickly.If we did things online we got told they would probably not get any money until mid night on Monday.
We now need to put more money in our daughters bank account tomorrow over the counter so Liz has money for the rest of this week.By doing this she should have the money quickly.Liz account has now been closed so we can't put money in her account.
Any parent who says it's harder having a baby instead of an young adult as their child - has rocks in their head <LOL> Yes I do realise it wasn't our own daughter who lost the money but obviously this matter also involves our daughter.Liz is like a 2nd daughter to us,she has been our daughter's best friend since she was 5 years old so she IS family !