We had a stroke of bad fortune during Christmas week. In addition to the fact that we didn't get to go to the States to celebrate with family, we were robbed. Silently, stealthily and quite thoroughly robbed.
Someone managed to get my debit card information AND my PIN number. How? I'll never know. Before we realized what had happened and could cancel the card, someone had a very Merry Christmas to the tune of 20,000 pesos this year at my expense. They started taking out 5,000 pesos a day on the 22nd of December and made daily withdrawal until they left us overdrawn by $250.00.
I found out later that kind of fraud is common around Guadalajara and especially around Christmas time. They wouldn't have made off with 1,520 dollars on any ordinary month, because we don't keep that much money on hand usually. However, we had extra money in the bank as our friends and family had sent us cash gifts for Christmas.
In addition, I had already made some payments online which were coming in right around the same time. I got a loan from dad to cover everything, but now I owe him as well as our other bills.
I'm not crying the blues, however. We had a great Christmas and we are still alive and healthy. I'm just a little bummed about having to pay off even more debt until the bank and VISA get it all together and decide who is going to reimburse me. It takes months. Frankly, I feel guilty taking money from the bank or VISA, as the problem was not due to any negligence on their part. I honestly have no idea how those crooks got my PIN number. I'm so very careful any time I use it. Someone was very clever, to clone my card and record my PIN as well. (My card was in my wallet in my pocket the whole time.)
The whole story about filing a police report is another story all its own, to be told in another post sometime.
As I said, it was a low blow to the stomach, but we are fine. We're not starving and we still have a home, so all is well.
I'm trying to give Jenn her part of the Christmas money as we get more, but it's going to take a while. I don't care about my part. I'm just happy to have her.