She left Gainesville at 5:30 p.m. to reach Bartow by 9 a.m. the next morning and interview for a communications specialist position with the Polk County Commission.
She stopped for gas at State Road 326 on Interstate 75, but her wallet was missing — along with her credit cards, driver’s license, Social Security card and state-issued purchasing card.
She had no way to get cash and without identification, couldn’t write a check.
She usually stored her purse out of sight at her office at the University of Florida, so she called a coworker to see if her wallet was there.
It wasn’t. she realized it had been stolen.
“They had to have gone in my office when I walked down the hall,” she said.
She had just enough gas to get back to Gainesville and report the theft.
She later learned that when she stopped for gas, her credit card was being used to buy gas at another station only 2.6 miles away.
She also learned it was used in Gainesville, Alachua County and Marion County.
With borrowed gas money, Guira finally left Gainesville again at 1 a.m.
She made the interview and got the job, but police never caught the thieves.
She spent two months getting new identity documents and two to three years monitoring her accounts.
She’s had no further problems, although her bank did call her cellphone in May after she bought gas on a trip through Alabama.
She’s glad to know her bank is looking out for her.
“I don’t want to run out of gas,” she said.
Identity theft can be as sophisticated as hacking online accounts, but investigators say it’s still as simple as stealing a wallet or piece of mail.
“It’s not a matter of ‘if.’ It’s ‘when,’” said Detective Suzan Weiss of the Polk county Sheriff’s Office Fraud Division.
She has seen cases of people using fishing line and sticky materials to pull mailed checks out of the big blue U.S. Post Office mailboxes.
Sometimes they steal the whole box or take mail out of curbside mailboxes, so she suggests people go inside a post office to mail bills.
“Nothing is foolproof,” Weiss said, “but the inside has video.”
Royal Brown of Winter Haven, a retired teacher, said mail theft may be one way his wife’s identity was stolen.
During Thanksgiving break in 2003, the Browns received several statements for credit cards they didn’t have and purchases they didn’t make at stores outside the county.
Someone had made a fake driver’s license under his wife’s name and used it to get retail store credit accounts.
It took six months and $800 in certified mail to clear up $46,000 in fraudulent charges.
A neighbor told investigators someone took mail from the Browns’ curbside mailbox, so now they use a post office box, Brown said.
Some people use locking curbside boxes, but Brown doesn’t trust anything the public can reach.
He said thieves once pried open several boxes at a post office they used. Fortunately, their box wasn’t opened.
Weiss said mail thieves also intercept and alter credit card applications, and the applications still got processed.
Sheriff’s Detective Sgt. Vernon Noad with the Fraud Division, said thieves can also steal a bank account number and print fake checks using a computer and check stock from an office supply store.
Weiss said password-protected online payments through a bank web site can prevent some identity theft.
Internet transfers go through with one click while mailed payments go through an average of 11 hands to reach a destination, she said.
However, Weiss cautions Internet users to make sure they use complicated and varied passwords to foil hackers, and never to store passwords near the computer or with credit and debit cards.
Weiss said online banking does require going through the bank to get printed statements, but she suggests checking statements often, even for an erroneous $1 charge.
She said thieves will test an account with a small charge to see if it will go undetected before withdrawing more money — or taking out a mortgage under a fake name.
Noad also said to limit giving someone else permission to use a credit or debit card.
“If you give permission once,” Weiss said, “it’s given.”
Trash mining or “Dumpster diving” is another problem. Weiss said it’s best to shred any unwanted credit card offers: “Turn it into confetti.”
Brown believes Dumpster diving may have been a problem for in his case, too.
After the Sheriff’s Office investigation into Brown’s case turned up a copy of his wife’s medical records, the detective suggested that a medical clinic employee may have either copied her information and sold it, or just disposed of it without shredding it.
In a case like that, Brown said, patients don’t have much choice other than to trust clinics to police themselves.
“There are a lot of ways you can become a victim,” Brown said. “It’s not your fault and you can’t do anything about it.”
However, the more people are aware — and watch their credit reports — the better off they’ll be, he said.
Donna Wood, public information officer with the Sheriff’s Office, said thieves have exploited new technologies to steal, but deputies are using the same tools to catch them.
She advises any victim of identity theft to call the Sheriff’s Office at 863-298-6200.
The Crime Prevention Unit at 863-298-6677 does free seminars. Detailed crime prevention information is online at www.polksheriff.org.
Brown, at 863-324-3192 or royalbrowniii@aol.com, also gives free seminars based on his experience.
Phil Attinger may be reached at 863-401-6981 or phil.attinger@newschief.com.