(WSVN) - Some slick thieves stole thousands of dollars in merchandise from a South Florida business owner, and quick thinking on her part may lead to a break in the case. 7’s Brandon Beyer shows us how this woman is trying “To Catch a Thief.”
Owning a successful small business is a lot of work, but for Mylene Pose, that hard work has paid off.
Mylene Pose, owner, ML Outdoor Furnishing: “I felt like I’ve accomplished something. Yeah, for myself.”
She credits word of mouth for the growth of her outdoor furniture store over the last eight years. So when she got an $8,500 online order from Tampa, she was happy to know just how far word had traveled.
Mylene Pose: “He ordered a few sets, actually six sets all together. Two of each.”
The credit card cleared and the customer sent a truck to pick up the furniture.
Mylene Pose: “Our averages are $2,500. We do good sales here, but that was a pretty big sale, so we were pretty excited about it.”
But the excitement didn’t last long. Two days later, the credit card holder stopped payment on the furniture, reporting the card as stolen.
The crooks got the furniture, and Mylene got ripped off.
Mylene Pose: “I was angry. I was very angry, to the point where I wanted to solve this myself.”
Detective Thomas Moran, Economic Crimes, Pembroke Pines Police: “In my time of investigating economic crimes cases, I’ve seen people lose upwards of hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
Local detectives say cyber crooks like these can be hard to catch.
Detective Thomas Moran: “They’re good at what they do. They know what they’re doing. It’s very difficult to catch them because it’s very hard to place the actual person behind the keyboard on the computer.”
But in this case, there was an actual person who came to pick up the furniture at their warehouse in Sunrise. And, thanks to some quick thinking by Mylene’s warehouse manager, he got pictures of the people who picked up the furniture.
Eric Calveiro, warehouse manager: “I took the pictures and all that, and I knew, you know, we had something there, you know, if anything would have happened.”
The pictures could be the key to solving this crime, and Mylene has a message for the crooks.
Mylene Pose: “What I would like to say, I don’t think we can say it on camera. But I hope we do get him.”
If you have any information about this case, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a $3,000 reward.
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