Eugene police are searching for a 33-year-old man who, after closing his tab at a local bar and getting the wrong credit card, went across the street and immediately bought an iPod from the University Bookstore for $369, after discount, police said.
On Jan. 18, the man, whom police declined to identify until they’ve arrested him, accepted a credit card that belonged to a University graduate around 1:30 p.m. at Taylor’s Bar and Grille, Eugene Police Department officer Randy Ellis said. The man immediately went across the street and signed bookstore papers in the name of the credit card owner, qualifying him for a discount as a University alumnus, Ellis said.
The credit card owner noticed the mistake when he tried to close his tab and was given the wrong card. He immediately called the credit card company from the bar, but the company told him that a purchase had already been made with his card, Ellis said.
Police knew who they were looking for because the man left his real credit card at the bar and “the guys at the bar know who he is because he’s worked as a sound guy there before,” Ellis said.
Police haven’t been able to find him because he doesn’t have a permanent address, he has been avoiding his parole officer, not answering his cell phone and not returning messages left at his brother’s residence, Ellis said. Police intend to arrest him on charges of theft of lost or mislaid property, theft in the second degree, fraudulent use of a credit card, forgery and identity theft, Ellis said.
The man, from Lincoln City, is already on probation for theft and burglary, Ellis said.
They haven’t attempted to obtain a warrant because police expected to arrest him before they could secure one, Ellis said.
Ellis said that while he remembers two cases in which thieves found credit or debit cards and attempted to use them, “this is the first time that I’ve known that it’s happened at (a bar).”
“I’ve had a couple of others in the past where people have gotten the wrong bar bill, but they got it settled and they got it worked out with the bar,” he said.
Taylor’s manager Justin Walker said he couldn’t comment on the incident.
Dan Geyer, who has been manager at Rennie’s Landing Restaurant and Bar for 12 years, said his bar has had customers accidentally accept the wrong card when closing a tab, especially if they have the same last name or initials as another customer and there are 20 or 30 tabs open at once, but they’ve never tried using the card.
“They might even take it home,” he said. “This was the first time anybody’s really taken advantage of the situation.”
Because the University graduate acted quickly after noticing his card was missing, police were quickly able to identify a suspect, making it “entirely possible that we could have caught the guy while he was still in the neighborhood,” Ellis said.
“I think there’s a couple of lessons here for students: If you don’t have possession of your card, somebody else does, and somebody else could use it,” Ellis said. “If it looks like … somebody else has it, get a hold of the bank immediately.”
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