Cop Becomes a Victim of Identity Theft – LifeLock Reviews

April 17, 2009 – 11:21 am

We depend on police officers to do the right thing and protect us from thieves that want to break in and steal. So it’s surprising to find cases where police officers are stealing from each other. You would think that the people designated to uphold the law wouldn’t be the ones to break it.

Lisa Cahill is a retired police office from New York. He was at a gas stations trying to fill up her car when her card was declined. She assumed that it was just a bank error, but when she called the bank them informed her that her account was empty.

Lisa retired from the police force in 2003 because of health problems. Debra Schymanski, a wife of a fellow officer Edward Schymanski, befriended her and even helped her setup an online bank account during her time of bad health.

Lisa was in a lawsuit against her boss at NYPD who had ordered her to wash and iron his shirt for him. She won the suit and was awarded $120,000. Unfortunately, her newfound friend Debra Schymanski took advantage of her and used her inside information to steal Lisa’s identity.

After Lisa deposited her settlement check Debra began draining the account. Lisa didn’t notice until he card was declined at the gas station in May. Debra used the money to pay off more than a dozen credit cards. Police also suspect the money was used to buy a car, appliances, and a motorcycle.

Debra Schymanski was caught and charged with two counts of identity theft and one count of grand larceny.

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