Restaurant server stole diner’s debit card, deputies say

CCSO

Urbano Lopez-Rodriguez

A server at an East Naples restaurant is accused of stealing a diner’s debit card number and going on a $1,500 shopping spree.

On Dec. 20, an Ohio man who was vacationing in Naples got a call from his bank about six fraudulent purchases that had been made that day with his debit card. The victim said he still had the card in his possession and didn’t know how the number had been stolen.

The fraudulent purchases were made at two Kmart stores and a Radio Shack in Collier County for a total of $1,539.52, according to an arrest report. Surveillance footage showed a man and a woman swiping a card with the victim’s information.

Detectives used the surveillance images to make an internal bulletin. Two jail deputies recognized the woman as a recent inmate and investigators began to look into her associates, reports said.

Deputies later learned the woman’s boyfriend, Urbano Lopez-Rodriguez, was a waiter at Captain Marco’s restaurant in East Naples. The victim told detectives he had eaten there days before the theft and later identified Lopez-Rodriguez as his waiter through photos.

Lopez-Rodriguez, 21, of the 5000 block of 31st Place Southwest, Golden Gate, faces charges of fraud-using the ID of another, fraud-illegal use of credit card and grand theft. As of Wednesday, he remained at the Naples Jail Center in lieu of $15,000 bond.