LYNN, Mass. — Authorities say a Massachusetts woman bought $64 worth of soda using a stolen welfare benefits card, then immediately fed the full cans into the supermarket’s automated redemption machine for the nickel deposit.
Tina Cafarelli, of Lynn, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges including larceny, property destruction and receiving stolen property. She was ordered held on $250 bail.
Police tell The Daily Item that the electronic benefits card Cafarelli used to buy the 18 12-packs of soda had another person’s name on it. The supermarket manager says the full cans caused extensive damage to the redemption machine.
The 36-year-old Cafarelli couldn’t be reached for comment.
Information from: The Daily Item, http://itemlive.com
I wonder if she has friends in bangor
Wonder if she knows Aunt Zeituni?
All that for $10.80??
Yeah but that should be enough for a couple packs of cheap smokes.
and lottery tickets
Down here, the state minimum over $8 a pack and no discount by the carton. Lot’s of work for a very few coffin nails! :)
Awww…this is too easy of a target.
Must have learned this from the welfare cheats in Maine. Try the new milk bottles, the deposit is much bigger!
These food stamps (debit cards) should be used for only healthy food items (veggies, dairy, breads, meats) not junk food or soda period. Seems like that would solve most of the abuse issues.
Don’t get the bleedin’ heart liberals going! You’re gonna wind them all up how food stamp recipients have birthdays, too, and are entitled to soda, birthday cakes, fine cuts of meat, lobsters, etc., on our dimes…
Reporting Fraud in Maine
Allegations of fraud or attempted fraud involving funds, including Food Stamps,
administered by the Department of Health and Human Services should be sent to:
Fraud, Investigation and Recovery
11 State House Station
Whitten Road
Augusta, Maine 04333-0011
Phone numbers for DHHS Fraud office are:
1-207-287-2409 and 1-800-442-6003
Further questions and suspicions can also be submitted by e-mail.
Fraud.Dhhs@maine.gov
Contact the Office of the Attorney General
Phone: 207-626-8800
Mailing Address:
Office of the Attorney General
6 State House Station
Augusta, ME 04333
http://www.maine.gov/ag/contact.html
Do All three, Phone, E-mail and send a Letter.
Follow-up in 30 days with a Certified letter if no response.
Send a letter Directly to the Governor’s Office, that should get their attention.
Keep a written log of actions and attempts to notify.
Hold them Responsible!
can we report government theft here too? That kind of theft is much larger than the welfare theft. I’d rather go after the BIG guns……
The thing is too many people, like you, claim to know of such instances of fraud but they haven’t got the stones to report it. Actually, most of them really don’t have first hand knowledge, they just pass along hearsay and nonsense. If they did have first hand information and didn’t report it, then they are JUST AS GUILTY as the one who actually commits the fraud.
I disagree with the liberal statement……I would love to see food stamps spent on healthy foods only and NO sugar drinks!!
Actually most liberals I know are very health conscious and would also advocate no sweets and soda with food stamps.
This “bleeding heart liberal” has a disabled adult daughter, and would like to remind you that YOU, any of YOUR kids, and any of YOUR grandkids could become disabled, or could lose a job and qualify for food stamps.
Do you truly believe that the penalty for being born disabled, becoming disabled through severe illness or injury, or going bankrupt should be NEVER to be able to buy a cake or a dosa or a bit of meat?
If so, do you believe such a rule should apply to YOU when your time of need arrives?
When you don’t have to pay for anything else at the grocery store you should be able to buy a cake with your own cash once a year.
You’re very kind. When you or one of your kids becomes disabled, should we permit you to purchase a piece of meat once per year?
Why don’t YOU buy her the cake?
Are you saying that when you or one of your children becomes disabled, cake should be permitted only if contributed by a family member (or perhaps a friend), but must never be purchased?
Is that meant to be a punishment for being disabled? I doubt you’ll like it when your turn comes.
….
Why do you insist on making this about being disabled? Does your disabled daughter depend on cake to survive? I highly doubt she does…so don’t you think your focus in this case should be on the things necessary to survive? Is my obligation as a taxpayer to help you get anything you want, or just to help you get the things you need? And if I’m helping you, along with all my friends in Maine, go out and get all these things you need to survive, then you really can’t afford $1.09 to buy some pillsbury cake mix? Especially since you can buy the eggs and milk with your EBT.
This has nothing to do with being able vs. disabled and I most definitely didn’t say anything about buying meat which is a staple food for most any persons diet. I said cake. We can toss in a few others if you like. Candy. Sweets. Cigarettes. Booze. Pretty sure none of those are staple foods necessary for sustenance. I never brought up meat. Run along now and go back to spinning things however you see fit so as to fit whatever lame argument you pretend to have.
Hey, JACK-BOOTED NEO-FASCIST, I’m one of your “bleeding heart liberals” and requiring the use of the cards for healthy items is a no brainer. The programming for the system would be pretty simple and straight forward. And I would caution you about throwing around stereotypes-I got your “bleeding heart liberal” right here!
I disagree. I consider myself to be a liberal, and the food stamp / welfare system should only be used for the purchase of nutritious food. You want cake? Make it from scratch. You want a good steak? Too damn bad. Lobster? Catch it yourself. You should have to earn the good things in life.
I’ll do you one better. Do away with the cards all together. All fraud would be eliminated. If people need assistance they should be given the food i.e. peanut butter, cheese, powdered milk, etc. That how it was when I was growing up.
…
So she raked in $10.80. Now I know those machines are slow…let’s say they can crush a can at a pace of one can every 10 seconds (insert…crush…fumble for another can…insert…crush…). So 216 cans at 10 seconds a can is 2160 seconds or a little over a half hour…So she’s working for $21.60 an hour. That would be a pretty good occupation if you could get 40 hours a week…but unfortunately for her that probably isn’t the case.
Now of course my math assumes that a full can crushes as quickly and easily as an empty can. Man, that must have made a soda explosion…and probably put 20 gallons of soda into the machine. Didn’t a store employee notice exploding cans of soda for over a half hour??? Of course not…the kid with the broom was only making $7.50 an hour and was easily outsmarted by the can crusher who was pulling in $21.60. Maybe stores would be better off ditching the machine and going back to a kid counting cans at the counter.
I have to hand it to her…whether it was brain power or out of desperation, she managed to avoid the “woman spotted dumping soda in parking lot” issue. I wonder if she could have just walked into a redemption center with 216 full cans and turned them in the the $10.80…..
I think I’m going to stop by Hannaford’s today and buy a couple of six packs just to crush the full cans in the machine…I’ll call it the “Hannaford has a monopoly and charges higher prices for groceries as a result Occupy Movement”
Hannaford removed all their machines.
Doesn’t sound like brain power or desperation. It sounds like a less than upstanding citizen who happened to find an EBT card. Probably what she calls “luck”.
Stealing from the poor and defrauding the state…what a winner.
There must have been a $21.60 special on Oxycontin just down the street.
Thisis the epitiomie of laziness. In the time it took her to buy the cans and push them through the machine she could have walked the roadside and picked up that many cans, avoided the issue of using a stolen card, AND gotten some probably much-needed exercise!
What? Too lazy to walk the roadside? Mass is lousy with colleges. Go to one some Sunday morning and check out the trash barrels. They’ll be full of returnables!
If people like this weren’t lazy, they wouldn’t be on welfare in the first place. People who have these cards, or that get a check once a month should be subjected to the same community service program that the courts use to punish petty crimes. No work no money.
The state gets work for the money it’s handing out, and all these welfare kings and queens get the satisfaction of having worked for the money they got handed this month… for a change.
This is nothing compared to what our government is wasting every freaking day.
So we should turn a blind eye to it, right? You obviously don’t pay taxes.
Nope, didn’t say that, your just assuming. The government has created this loophole by allowing bottle deposits to be paid with welfare money. Why should my tax money, and i assure you i pay taxes, be used to buy soda and pay the deposit? Next i will be helping them buy beer and the deposit on that. Maybe we should allow that, at least they wouldn’t just waste the beer and they would get some nutrition from it. What i actually am alluding to is this is small bananas and prosecuting this woman will cost more than it is worth. Just close the loophole.
I stand corrected. :)
Just another one of those “isolated” incidents like we seem to repeatedly have in Maine….nothing to worry about.
Did we read the same article? Because the one I read clearly said the lady stole the card. If she had her own card, I am sure she would have used that instead. Thus, we can deduce that she isn’t on welfare. See…there are bad people everywhere…not just those on welfare.
I know the article says she stole it, but based on the very few facts provided, it ‘s hard to know. Did someone else give her the card to use? That happens all the time, even though it’s not legal. And if someone gets caught letting someone else use their card, you can be sure they will say it is stolen…
To carry this one step further, we can also deduce that people on welfare never steal.
It is literally impossible that the card was stolen. You need a pin number. people share their cards all the time. I’m assuming they wanted some cash, and the person that owns the card sent this brilliant creature to the store. When she got caught the person said she stole it
This is quite common.
You know what just struck me? A person could use an EBT card to purchase 18 12-packs of soda and there is nothing illegal, for lack of a better word, about it–at least in Massachusetts. Is that the case in Maine? Can you purchase soda with an EBT card in Maine?
yes they can buy soda on the EBT card … i dont think they should be able to soda and junk food…they stopped the hot food that people was ordering like pizza and the from shop-n-save hot chicken with the EBT card ..just to let u all know i dont get that stuff i work for my food… lol
I would rather someone buy a hot, nourishing chicken with their benefit than soda!
Existence of the system promotes abuse of the system…
Solution? Get rid of the system, as you will NEVER curtail the human propensity to abuse it and plunder their neighbors
Be careful–all the bleedin’ heart liberals will attack you because it MIGHT have been her “birthday” and she deserved something special –like smokes, lobsters or liquor. OH! How stupid of me! They use their own cash for cigs and all, and our money for everything else!
Using that logic, maybe we should get rid of the system of taxation and the IRS, because you will NEVER curtail the human propensity to abuse it and plunder their neighbors.
Getting rid of the IRS is the best suggestion I’ve seen on here in weeks!
The woman STOLE the card…if she was on welfare, I am sure she would have used her own card. Seems logical, don’t you think?
So…since you now know that there are bad people in every group, it is logical that this woman would find a way to abuse, defraud, steal, and plunder others no matter what.
People shouldn’t even be allowed to waste their food benefits on soda. Food aid is getting tight nowadays and this aid shouldn’t be wasted on sweets and soda.
Oh No…Your gonna be attacked for this opinion!
They were not her benefits…the article clearly states that she had stolen the card. If she had her own card, considering that she is obviously an immoral person, I am sure she would have been caught doing this with her own card.
I’m sure the owner of the card would claim it was stolen. What do you think would happen to the owners benefits if she said otherwise?
This really isn’t a food stamp issue….the food stamp card was stolen. This is no different than a stolen credit/debit card or cash besides the fact that her purchases were limited to food items. Regardless if it was $64 worth of soda or $64 worth of healthy food….it still is theft all the same regardless of her purchases with a STOLEN card. Address the issue, the issue is theft, period.
You honestly believe this card was stolen and the unknown to the victim thief managed to figure out the PIN?
You are so naive.
Plenty of other drinks such as juices have bottle deposits. The simple solution would to charge the purchaser the bottle deposit so there is no incentive for fraud however this incident has nothing to do with welfare fraud and everything to do with theft.
But didn’t this person have to pay the deposit on the soda? I thought that was the reason you got the deposit back, when you returned the bottles. Of course, I guess the deposit was ‘charged’ to the stolen card and this person was looking for a ‘cash’ source.
I know throwing her in jail for this offense is just going to cost the taxpayers more money, but
how else do you make a criminal pay for their actions?
The idea behind this form of fraud is that since the bottle deposit comes from the benefits that dumping out the contents and returning the bottles for the deposit yields a cash result. Take away the free deposits and that ends that scheme.
Other than using someone else card did this woman do anything wrong? The system apparently allows the bottle/can deposit to be paid with that card. If she had used the soda or had dumped the cans at home then returned them for the deposit where would the crime be? Only thing that needs to be done is the law changed to not allow sales tax and bottle deposits to be paid with the card. We might get the law changed in 3 or 4 years.
nail her with a hefty fine.
Actually people have been known to buy bottled water and dump it out to get the deposit money.
You should not be allowed to buy soda anyways with the cards.
You are NOT “allowed” to buy anything with a stolen card.
I thought the “anyways” clarified my comment but I guess not.
You should not be able to buy soda in the first place with a stolen or legitimate card. I hope that makes my statement clear for you.
we understand your concearn about what to buy with food stamps, but the article is not based on what is healthy or not it is based on A STOLEN FOOD STAMP CARD….. we all know what should and shouldnt be bought.
You have to be real clear for some of these posters, some are a little slow…LOL..
You would think so, but where do you draw the line? How nutritional are coffee, kool-aid, and ice tea mixes? Should they take off ice cream, donuts, chips, and pastries as well?
The food and beverage industry spent $21 million dollars on lobbying Congress last year. Until a coalition with as much money can be formed to fight that industry, the rules will stay in place.
Yes they should take off all the food besides staple goods. Its supposed to help feed people not be a luxury. That would allow more food to be bought and fewer people would go hungry. As far as lobbying congress goes well that is a whole other thing.
Didn’t all the Obama-voting, Baldacci-worshipping self-righteous “let’s raise taxes to infinity” crowd get on here a few weeks ago and ream Christine Rouselle a new one because she wrote about Food Stamp abuse?
She stole the card.
And…The Pin Number?
“During George W. Bush’s eight-year presidency 14.7 million people went on the food stamp rolls, a half-million more than in Obama’s three years, according to factcheck.org, a nonpartisan group.”
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/10/05/nearly-half-of-households-receive-some-government-benefit/
So what are you saying? At his current rate, by the end of his presidency Obama will have added at more than twice the rate that Bush did.
Possibilities:
1. She left her house to buy more oxycontin from her favorite dealer, but found that she was a little short of cash.
2. She flunked physics 101 and she wanted to find out what would happen when you try to crush a full can of liquid.
3. She was a ‘secret shopper’ testing the store’s machine.
4. A friend in Bangor told her that it worked fine for them.
Which of the above do *you* think is more likely?
I say 4
While this is one of those “shake your head and let me hear it rattle” type of stories, I’m left wondering how, among the hundreds of theft stories that made police blotters today, this one got picked up by the AP and put on the wire. Must be that mainstream liberal media at it again with their agendas…
I know what you mean…funny how that works.
Lynn Lynn, the city of sin…
Lawrence’s twin city.
they should not be able to buy soda, beer or liquor with these cards
you cant buy alcohol or liquor with stamp cards anyway.
I guess you can buy liquor with the cash benefits
All depends on who you know and where you shop, dear.
just found that out lol
Simple solution, but it’ll probably never happen. Make bottle deposits non-purchasable with these cards. Then these deadbeats can try and buy all the soda/water they want, but they’ll have to find cash to pay for the deposit. I think they’d stop trying to buy soda/water in a hurry then.
That’s a good idea……….makes sense………Never happen……..
i have had food stamps in the past, and i dont believe in buying luxury foods, but have boughten soda my son, but do agree on the no buying anything that you can get a deposit on. that is the whole idea of stamps and they have it set up so you cant get changed back on a sale, so why should you be able to get deposit money back, just never thought of it before, good point
What about orange juice in a bottle ?
Stolen card yet she knew the PIN#…
this wasn’t much money stolen compared to what the rich and the government steals from the working people daily. NO BIG deal, GOP just trying to focus on a poor person stealing a few bucks so the hatred is on the poor NOT the rich that steal every day!!!
Them damn GOP, nothing but a bunch of bullies..LOL
this would not have happened if id was required to use such things
id is required, it just the cashiers dont usually ask for it.
A pin is required…… Means the card wasn’t stolen
1. How did she get the pin number? I doubt it was stolen. The person that sold it to her prob lied to cover their bum.
2. Why can ebt buy soda and candy anyways? Whens the last time you heard of a child having a soda and chocolate deficiency? Too many people spend all their welfare on junk, and use maine care to deal with the consequences.
3. How dumb can she be? Like, really?
how bright can she be, one steal someone elses food stamp card, two not only deposit said stolen cans, but in the same store you bought them. Wow bright…….
So why didn’t the clerk that checked out the soda purchase ask for an ID when she presented the debit card? All welfare debit cards should be coded so that you can’t easily just pass through a check out and get what you want without showing an ID. This law needs to change in all states! This welfare benefit is state tax payers money they are playing around with. Accountability needs to be addressed here.
It looks like cashiers DO NOT” ask for Identification when one of these food stamp cards are used. Should they be?? Or are they supposed too?? Not sure how the system works
All that for just for 10 dollars in returnables?
paid 64.00 for 3.20 bottle return….what a crook!!! and all on a stolen card….yikes
You can’t fix stupid.
just last week some young punk came up and asked “Can I ask you a random question?” I was in the home stretch of my grocery shopping trip following my girlfriend. I said okay. He had the nerve to ask me how I was going to pay for my stuff. I asked why and he replied “Well all I have is food stamps and I need gas money to get home.” I was in shock. He wasnt more than 20. I said no I pay with a credit card. Then said if you go up front to the computer that walmart is so gracious to supply for people to apply for a job, then come talk to me. He just threw up his hands in disgust and said “I told you it was just a random question.” Hes lucky he didnt ask my girlfriend that because she has stronger beliefs against the people that abuse the system than I do. Before I could turn him in he was gone from the store.
oh and of course he told me he would give me one heck of a deal!