Richmond RCMP is on the trail of a lobster fraudster - after a credit card thief slipped through their net.
The local detachment got a call from a Nova Scotia lobster dealer detailing how a customer, who had used a stolen credit card, was about to pick up a shipment of his crustacean at YVR.
However, instead of hightailing it down to the airport to catch the fraudster, the RCMP told the dealer in Yarmouth, NS, that he'd have to contact his local detachment first to take a statement and then they could, in turn, contact Richmond.
Needless to say, three hours later, after Yarmouth police had arrived and taken a statement, the thief had been and gone from YVR.
Thankfully, the lobster dealer in question had alerted the FedEx depot at the airport and they withheld the shipment when the credit card thief tried to pick it up.
According to the RCMP, the thief made no attempt to argue with the FedEx staff when told the shipment was not being released to him; he simply turned away and left.
The shipment of lobster was the second such transaction between the Nova Scotia dealer and the Richmond fraudster.
It was only when the actual owner of the credit card called the dealer to say he'd never bought $1,800 worth of lobster they realized there was an issue.
The total cost of the two fraudulent sales came to around $4,500.
Richmond RCMP has since admitted that, although a statement is normally required before they can act in such circumstances, they could have gone to the airport, identified and then questioned the suspect.
The detachment's Sgt. Cam Kowalski told the News they are investigating the fraud and why they didn't at least head down to the airport when given the information.
