Loose Cannon: A Latte Good It’ll Do

For those made nervous by a constant stream of consumer data breach reports and their impact on direct marketing, the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported on one victim who quite literally took her identity back from the woman who stole it. And there’s a lesson in this particular data theft, one that might hearten marketers.

It was a caffeine craving, rather than detective work, that resulted in Karen Lodrick ending six months of misery, reported the Chronicle’s Mike Weiss. According to Weiss, Lodrick had stopped into a Starbucks for a latte, as had a woman immediately behind her in line.

But the ladies were linked by more than a liking of lattes. The woman standing in back of Lodrick carried a pricey light brown suede coat, a coat Lodrick had seen before: According to the Chronicle, the same woman – Maria Nelson – wore the same coat in a security camera photo taken while she was emptying Lodrick’s Wells Fargo checking account. Wells Fargo authorities had shown the photo to Lodrick as part of their investigation.

Lodrick followed Nelson out of the Starbucks while giving a 911 operator details of her chase, the Chronicle reported. When Nelson hailed a cab, Lodrick confronted her before the car could pull away.

Nelson then fled on foot, pausing only to toss a Prada wallet into an abandoned shopping cart. Lodrick retrieved the wallet and found credit cards, a Social Security card and a debit card, all in her own name. Authorities later recovered a driver’s license in Lodrick’s name as well – but with Nelson’s photo and physical description.

A police officer joined Lodrick 45 minutes into the chase, and the two cornered Nelson. It turned out Nelson was on probation for several other instances of fraud and identity theft, according to the Chronicle.

Amazingly enough, Lodrick refrained from taking a few healthy swings at Nelson when initially confronting her. Then again, Nelson, at five-foot-ten and 150 pounds, had a good eight inches and 40 pounds on Lodrick, according to the Chronicle. Even so, knowing that someone else has been buying Prada on your dime can make up for an awful lot of height/weight difference.

This story has a happy ending, of sorts: Lodrick’s bank made good on the $9,000 Nelson had taken from it. But Nelson was sentenced to three years’ probation and the 44 days she had served since her arrest, with no additional jail time added during the sentencing.

In the meantime Lodrick, a consultant, estimated that she lost $30,000 in business during the six months she was dealing with the fraud.

So what is the heartening lesson for the direct marketing community? Well, Nelson was able to steal Lodrick’s identity by gaining access to master keys to a neighborhood mailbox. There was no high-tech data breach, nor misuse of information collected by marketers.

Yes, cases such as the ChoicePoint breach happen. And yes, some entities that compile data – both public and private – are more cavalier about how they treat this information than is acceptable. But actual identity theft is more often the case of low-tech theft than high-tech hijinks.

Perhaps before legislators enact any more statutes that restrict marketing data, they might pause and have a latte.

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