Saying Goodbye to 2009 - The Year of Thieves

So, I've been wanting to write this post for a while, but I'll be honest....it's taken me a full 2 months to really begin to uncover all of what happened in 2009!! So, you might remember a blog post from September of last year telling about my unfortunate luck with my new MacBook being stolen at a church function. Well, that was after my iPod had been stolen from my desk at work in January! So here's the rest of the story....

While at home in TX for Thanksgiving, I received a call from a concerned roommate. She said my car had been vandalized and my airbags were stolen! That's right, someone (or a team of thieves) just happened to be in our neighborhood that night stealing airbags out of Honda Accords and mine was hit. They smashed in the back window, disabled the alarm system and ripped out the airbag. Fortunately, they were only going for the airbag and therefore, they didn't touch my coins, GPS or other valuables in the car. That took about a month to repair and get everything straightened out.

Then, I went home for Christmas (maybe the connection here is going home ;)). As I was on my mint.com account one day, I noticed two strange charges that I didn't remember making on Christmas Eve. Turns out, someone had stolen my credit card #, made their own, and then used it in CT to make 3 purchases, two of which passed through and charged my card! Yep, it says I bought $200 worth of groceries and $50 worth of gas on Christmas Eve in CT (the $200 at K-mart did not go through). I was able to call my credit card company quickly and get it straightened out.

Well, the point of the story it can happen to you at anytime, anywhere and with anyone. Hopefully, you won't have 4 things stolen in a year's time, but if you do here are some resources to help or to prevent it happening to you:

1. Immediately report the incident. Most of the time, the local cops will make a report and tell you the next steps.
2. If your credit cards or debit cards or anything with a financial institution is compromised, immediately call the company and explain to them the situation.
3. Check your credit reports and place a credit freeze on all three of your credit reports. I only placed a credit fraud alert on my credit reports, and I've recently found how flimsy these are. A freeze will freeze anyone (including you) out of your credit until you chose to remove it. It costs $10/report/pull, but your identity is worth at least $300k!!
4. Be more aware of your surroundings and your valuables. I have learned several hard lessons this year, but I now know that I can't set my laptop down even for a moment even in a church! At work, keep your things locked up and out of other's view. And of course, keep all your financial information locked away in a safe and password protected on your computer.

For these and other identity theft tips, check out the FTC's website on identity theft or John Sileo's blog.
Here's to a theft-free 2010!!!