McDonald’s Drive Thru Clerk, Jean-Paul Jay Hascoat, Nabbed for Committing Identity Theft on the Job
A thirty year old Wisconsin man was arrested and charged with four felony counts of identity theft and four misdemeanor counts of theft by credit card. On June 11th, Jean-Paul Jay Hascoat was apprehended by police officers as he was walking along the road in his McDonald’s uniform.
Photo/Vectorportal via wikimedia commons
Suspicion was first raised when on May 19th when a teenage girl from New London reported stolen her Community First Credit Union debit card that she has used to purchase food at the New London McDonald’s drive-thru a few days prior. She realized the McDonald’s clerk had not handed back her debit card and she subsequently notified authorities.
On May 22nd, another New London resident spoke to police about an incident involving a McDonlad’s clerk at the same drive thru. The clerk had returned to the man a card that belonged to someone else. After a third and fourth person reported similar incidents police worked with the McDonald’s management to track down the employee believed to be committing fraud.
Identity theft has dramatically increased in occurrences over the recent decades and in 2017 alone there were a record high 16.7 million victims. Identity theft is regarded as a serious crime in which a person’s personal information is unknowingly stolen. The stolen information is used to commit a wide variety of fraud which can harm the real person’s credit and take a serious financial toll.
According to Randolph Law Firm, P.C, which specializes in taxes, “An identity thief can also illegitimately file taxes on your behalf and secure your refund. You may not discover this infraction until you attempt to file your taxes.”
A new study performed by researchers from the University of York has found that sporting a big smile when taking an ID picture could be one tactic to help prevent identity fraud. Other prevention tactics include avoiding carrying your Social Security card in your wallet, not responding to unsolicited requests for personal information, updating sharing and firewall settings when you’re on a public wi-fi network, review credit card bills and bank statements promptly, and checking your credit report.
Author: Jacob Maslow
Crime Scene Tape photo/edited pic from FBI.gov
