An investigation began Monday after a woman was caught on camera stealing a credit card reader from an East Los Angeles bakery.
The woman was first seen on the surveillance video of Rene’s Bakery, lingering behind two customers over the weekend. She then went up to the counter to pay for an item with cash and asked for a couple of bottles of water.
When the clerk turned around to get the water, the woman took the credit card reader from the counter, ending up stealing the money the business earned over two days.
“Just this morning, I checked my bank account, they took $18,000 from my account,” said Rene Ocampo, the bakery owner.
A cyber security expert said small businesses often do not do enough to protect themselves from electronic thefts.
“The fact that it lost money suggests that the configurations, the way the system was not set up carefully enough to protect the business owner from this kind of a thing,” said Stan Stahl from Secure the Village. “The stores need something called multi-factor authentication, where you can’t get into a bank account just with a password.”
Stahl said customers who used credit cards at the bakery in the last few days should check their purchases from the bank or card statements because their card information could be exposed if the reader is compromised.
“You can also set up alerts on your credit card. Every time my credit card gets used, my cell phone gives me a text message,” Stahl added.
Bank of America, the bank for Rene’s Bakery, told NBC Los Angeles that the thief appeared to have fraudulently used the card reader to authorize a refund.
Detectives with the LA County Sheriff’s Department will investigate the case as a felony grand theft.