{"id":308539,"date":"2026-06-15T23:32:09","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308539\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:32:09","slug":"florida-man-says-thieves-stole-2800-in-snap-benefits-from-ebt-card-spent-funds-hundreds-of-miles-away-i-was-frozen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/308539\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida man says thieves stole $2,800 in SNAP benefits from EBT card, spent funds hundreds of miles away: “I was frozen”"},"content":{"rendered":"

South Florida<\/a> resident Haresh Pahilwani says he was shocked when his EBT card was declined at checkout.<\/p>\n

“I really don’t know how this happened,” Pahilwani told CBS News Miami.<\/p>\n

Pahilwani receives SNAP benefits<\/a>, commonly known as food stamps<\/a>, and says he typically does not spend all of the money loaded onto his card each month.<\/p>\n

“I don’t spend everything at one time,” he said.<\/p>\n

That’s why he became concerned on May 31 when his card stopped working.<\/p>\n

After reviewing his account activity, Pahilwani discovered more than $2,800 in SNAP benefits had been spent at Target stores and supermarkets in Maryland, hundreds of miles from his South Florida home, all in a single day.<\/p>\n

\"ebtdeclinedsouthflorida.jpg<\/p>\n

Upon revieiwing his spending account, Mr. Pahilwani found tons of unauthorized charges at stores hundreds of miles from South Florida.<\/p>\n

CBS News Miami<\/p>\n

Pahilwani says he still had his EBT card in his possession at the time and was driving for Uber in Florida when the transactions occurred.<\/p>\n

“I was frozen,” he said. “I had to re-log into my account to see if it was true or if I was dreaming.”<\/p>\n

He immediately contacted the Florida Department of Children and Families<\/a>, which administers SNAP benefits in the state.<\/p>\n

Pahilwani said his original card was canceled and replaced, but he was told the stolen benefits would not automatically be restored.<\/p>\n

CBS News Miami reached out to DCF for comment and is awaiting a response.<\/p>\n

“I really want to know how this happened,” Pahilwani said. “I called the police department and I went to the police department, and they won’t take it because it’s federal.”<\/p>\n

Jocelyn Armand, an attorney with Legal Services of Greater Miami, says cases like Pahilwani’s have become increasingly common.<\/p>\n

“This is something we see regularly,” Armand said.<\/p>\n

\"4am-to-8-am-clean-aircheck-250321-frame-417730.jpg<\/p>\n

She says criminals often obtain EBT card information through skimming devices and then clone cards to make fraudulent purchases.<\/p>\n

While SNAP benefits are federally funded, Armand says states largely determine whether stolen benefits will be reimbursed.<\/p>\n

“There is not a state-specific fund to reimburse stolen benefits, so sometimes there is no resolution to that,” Armand said.<\/p>\n

Her office helps SNAP recipients file claims seeking reimbursement, but she says approval is not guaranteed.<\/p>\n

Armand recommends cardholders take advantage of security features now available through many EBT systems.<\/p>\n

“You can actually block it from being used and then reactivate it when you’re going to use it,” Armand said. “You can also block transactions that are out of state.”<\/p>\n

Pahilwani says he has since updated his account settings to include those protections.<\/p>\n

CBS News Miami also contacted the U.S. Department of Agriculture<\/a>, which oversees the SNAP program. A spokesperson said the agency does not know how Pahilwani’s card information was compromised but noted that the administration is pushing for stronger EBT card security measures to combat fraud.<\/p>\n

For now, Pahilwani says he is still searching for answers and hoping to recover the money meant to help pay for groceries.<\/p>\n

“I really want to know how this happened,” he said.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"South Florida resident Haresh Pahilwani says he was shocked when his EBT card was declined at checkout. “I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":308540,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,410,1387,807,13331],"class_list":["post-308539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-food-stamps","tag-fraud","tag-south-florida","tag-supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=308539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/308540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=308539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=308539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=308539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}