From Rod Patch, Arkanglers:
To all concerned,
On April 21, 2011 an early 50’s Hispanic male stole three fly rods, four fly reels and four fly lines from my Arkanglers fly shop in Buena Vista Colorado. The equipment is listed below.
The individual told the sales clerk that he was replacing equipment that had been stolen in Pueblo Colorado. He selected the equipment and then left for a few hours while the sales clerk had time to setup the reels. When he returned he presented a Visa Debit card issued by Green Dot as form of payment. The sales clerk swiped the card and the transaction was declined. The customer then called the issuing bank and provided the sales clerk with an authorization number. The clerk unknowingly processed the sale by “force posting the transaction”. The credit card terminal printed a receipt and the clerk thought all was well. The customer took the equipment and left.
On May 6th I received a chargeback notification from my credit card processor. I contacted Green Dot, the bank that issued the card, and they informed me that the card had never been activated and that it had a 0 balance. They also told me that the card is available widely at King Soopers, Seven Eleven, City Market etc and that there is a limit of $500.00 on cards of this type. They also suspected that the customer had some insider knowledge of how these transactions work, because he provided a six digit authorization number to the clerk. According to the credit card processor any six digit number would have worked. Bottom line is this guy exploited the ignorance of my clerk and a flaw in the credit card transaction system. Per the card processor the clerk did everything correctly. The only thing he could have done differently was to call the issuing bank himself rather than trusting the customer.
If anyone comes across any of this equipment I would appreciate being contacted. I would also appreciate the opportunity to discuss this situation with the jerk that perpetrated this crime.
Sage 590-4 VXP serial number AF 33110
Sage 379-4 VXP serial number AF33492
Redington 276-4 CT
Ross CLA 1
Ross CLA 2
Ross EVO LT 0
Orvis Access I
All reels had $75.00 fly lines on them.
Thank you,
Rod Patch
719-539-8516
[email protected]
