From stolen wallet to stolen car: One man's journey through identity theft

WEST VALLEY CITY — After his wallet was taken out of his locker at the gym, Jordan Richardson is now thrice bitten, twice shy. One problem kept adding onto another.

On July 1, while he was doing a short workout after work, Richardson's wallet and car keys — even his deodorant — were stolen from a locked locker at Gold's Gym in West Valley City.

"I'm sure it was completely locked," Richardson said. "I'm kind of OCD that way."

The locker had been secured with a combination lock, meaning the burglar may have been watching as he dialed his combination.

When he realized what had happened, Richardson immediately did everything he knew to limit the damage. He called police, contacted his credit card companies, reported the theft to his credit union, got a new debit card and even changed the locks on his apartment.

Not good enough, it turns out.

On July 8, the identity thief, or thieves, went to a Mountain America Credit Union drive-through and, just like that, took $2,000 out of Richardson's account, leaving only about $100. When his rent check bounced, Richardson looked at his account Wednesday and learned what he thought would have been impossible.

He was shocked. Not only had a new debit card been issued to him, but Mountain America flagged his account and applied a security password that was supposed to prevent such a fraudulent withdrawal from ever happening.

Thursday, Mountain America spokeswoman Louisa Ingalls said the credit union will refund Richardson's money in full and has an investigation under way to find out how the thief managed to get around the precautions.

Richardson said Mountain America told him that surveillance camera information might be available. And he also reported the incident to West Valley police Wednesday.

But it gets worse.

Sunday night, the identity thief apparently went to Richardson's apartment complex and used his stolen keys to drive away with his silver 2003 Honda Civic. Police are investigating. Richardson said he had considered changing his car locks, but the price was a little steep. Besides, his current address is not on his driver's license, so he didn't think the thief could find it.

Ironically, his car wasn't stolen while it was parked at Gold's Gym — even though a GPS device, shoes and clothing were. In fact, the thief was thoughtful enough to lock the car after they took what they wanted.