Stealing from your house breaks all kinds of unwritten codes. Stealing your identity takes a lot of balls and stupidity. If he was really poor and a genuine friend, he would've swallowed his pride and asked to borrow some money. Instead, he exploited all the trust he could from you. Let the sucker burn. If your friends by association think differently of you, ask them how'd they feel if anyone came in and stole from their house.
BTW, if I was the forgiving type, I'd be consistent and forgive even if he repeated the action again.
You'd be nuts not to call the authorities on him. There's no telling what other things he may have done.
apparantly he isn't a friend of yours to steal from you. if he can't pay you back within the week. report him to the police. hell just call the cops now. i wouldn't take that crap from anyone.
How old is this guy? Is he in his early 20's? Do you know much about his background and/or his parents? If you force him to get the money from his parents, and they know why, then you are hurting him pretty good. If it's a one time mistake, and he is really in some trouble that led to this as an impulse (which is probably unlikely, but... ), then getting charged with a felony and getting put into a Texas pen is pretty heavy. What a fool this guy was. Is he doing coke or something? I don't envy you being put in this position, with police, going to court and so on. You were smart to have yourself covered as far as being notified about your charges and acting quickly on it. This is a tough decision. You should probably turn him in, but you also might be responsible for turning his life around if you don't. Wow. Good luck.
Well, SHE is very apologetic and promises to pay me for the Kroger credit charge and will send the sprint pcs phone back and get that credited. She swears that nothing else was done with my information. She is terrified that I will call the cops and calls and emails me constantly apologizing. She really isn't a friend of mine at all and came over with a group of friends that night who are my good friends, needless to say she already lost that group of friends over this. I'm still not sure what i'm going to do at this point, but i'm leaning towards forgiveness.
I think that's a pretty good way of looking at it. You'd be letting her off pretty easy considering the amount of damage she could of (and most likely was going) to do to your credit. Also, like you said, this girl isn't a great friend who you might feel sorry for. She's just some girl you know. If anything, make her pay you back with 20% interest.
I don't claim to know how the legal system works, but is there a lawyer or judge who could deal with this directly instead of the police? Hell, even if the police were involved, it's not like she would get any jail time, especially if she is a first time offender. She would be grilled to release all instances of when she used your name and it sounds like she's already given all of that info to you. I mean the fact that she is a women (And everyone found that out halfway through this thread) changes everything. Instead of assuming it was a previous male offender, it turns out to be a very apologetic woman. I mean if you are an American woman, you can have sex with little boys and avoid jail time. Seems like the only thing here is (assuming she repays you soon enough and does enough to "repair" your credit) criminal record for her or not. If anything, you could just threaten her with small claims court, no?
I'd think she would at least get a year probation. (I'm no expert either, just going off of similiar cases I've heard of from friends)
I'd call the police. If they are dishonest enough to steal your card AND try to open another account on your information, this isn't a one time thing. They have done it before or will do it again. Not to mention they might have given your info to someone else as well. If something else happens and it turns out that you did not alert the authorities in a timely manner YOU could be responsible.
You guys are missing the point. Its a SHE so she did it out of necessity. A cell phone and a $2500 JC Penny credit line. We are talking about survival here. Its not like she went ahead and got herself a new Ferrari. Cut her some slack. Just let her repay you and give her a free ticket to a Rockets game as punishment. That oughta teach her....
Yeah, just start talking about those horrible female prison scenes she's probably seen on cable. Don't tell her you watch Cinemax.
I don't think that being a woman changes a thing. She still committed a crime. She shouldn't get off because she's a she. Like I said before, if it was just for food I would feel a little bit sorry for her. However, since she also chose to get a cell phone and a credit card at a department store, she was just trying to take advantage of you. These are not necessities of life. If she's willing to do it to someone she sorta knows, she's not going to have any problems doing it to a stranger. She may have already. If you just let her off, she's going to do it again because she'll think the next person will let her off. It's a slippery slope into a life of crime. Next thing you know she'll be robbing a mini-mart and you'll really feel bad when the S.W.A.T. team is dragging her off to the big house. Turn her in. It will be good for you, and (in the long run) good for her. Even though you've closed the JC Penney account, it still goes on YOUR credit report. The only way to possibly get it removed is to file a police report. You saying that someone else stole your identity doesn't do squat unless there's a police report filed. If you're curious to know if she's done this before, drop me a line at tamufootball@hotmail.com. I can check to see if she's got a criminal record in Harris County. (This is not an open offer to everyone!)
