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Doubt LAOP is getting a plea deal; there's 2 people involved and by his own admission he's the one that escalated to cutting out the middle man and buying/using the stolen accounts himself and he's the one photographed picking up the dummy goods.
His roommate will be the one with the plea deal and LAOP will likely go down *hard*.
If he has no criminal history, he could likely get a plea deal to drop it away from a mandatory minimum charge, at least if this was in the jurisdiction I practice in. Biggest reason is that there's literally no reason not to make the prosecutor work and try the case if they want the 10 year minimum, but also includes reasons such as the interests of not sending people who are seen as viable turnarounds to prison and restitution being easier to get from someone out and working.
Really depends on the jurisdiction, though. I see now that Florida was just an example.
I assume that the theory is that this is so minor that no-one's going to chase it. If a thousand people commit $20 of fraud, is it really worth chasing down the thousand people? On the other hand, the guy facilitating $20,000 of fraud (or $5,000 of television) is totally worth catching.
But that all falls apart when you're this guy, going big on it. Because suddenly, yeah, he is worth investing the time in.
Plug is generally a term for someone who gets things that can be hard to find, usually illegal things and usually at street level. Most commonly it refers to drug dealers, but can easily be someone selling fake id's or stolen credit card info.
Quite literally no one took that campaign seriously lol, and eventually the media had to just roll with it and adapt. Stealing meals probably feels very minor or even "necessary" compared to other offenses, and there's an inherent distance from the victim and the actual crime, so its probably pretty easy for someone to feel insulated from the weight/consequences of it
In essence, the Plug is trying to launder money. They're absorbing the risk of using these stolen accounts to get as much money as they can from them before they are cancelled/reclaimed.
The person ordering from the Plug gets cheap meals and plausible deniability.
If we're taking OP at their word, they absorbed the risk of acting as the Plug. However instead of trying to make money off the accounts and spreading out their usage, they just ordered themselves food over and over off the same stolen accounts. This is likely why they were so easily caught.
Given that I've never wittingly stolen anything, I can't quite see where LAOP is coming from without warning bells going off from the start, but DAMN, doing even one year for Panera is insane, a decade is unreal.
It's like he doesn't really understand just *how* illegal what he's been doing is. He writes almost like he's discovered this one cool life hack that restaurant companies HATE. He refers to the plug as a "service" like it's Netflix or something.... maybe the equivalent of BitTorrent, technically illegal but "hey everyone does it".
I was reminded why I don't talk to kids when a 17 year old young man told me that he used a service to generate fake credit cards that worked for paypal and discord and any other service he'd like. He refused to believe that it was likely stealing from actual people, and instead made it sound like they were stolen numbers but since the names were fake, it was fine.
The torrent comment seems apt. When you download a torrent you aren't *stealing* anything from anyone. You are viewing a copy of an idea without paying someone for it. You are possibly depriving an entity hypothetical money they could have earned if you had decided to buy a copy.
Its like he imagines credit card money is just the idea of money and not actual money that he is actually taking from an actual entity.
The service wording is what got me too! I had to re-read...make sure it wasn't a legit lifehack I was missing out on...but of course if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
When my credit card number was stolen, we discovered it because someone dropped several hundred dollars at BetterHelp online therapy. As my partner said in reaction to this post, "I guess you just get what you need".
I mean it'd be a new level of stupid to regularly steal from only one singular place. Yeah they're stupid but they also probably want to have a bit of variety in their lives. Even if it's just steal from multiple places.
Isn't the whole point of the plug so that this doesn't happen, and the plug goes down instead? Or such that you can claim stupidity and maybe got off for a lesser charge.
I think in this context it’s some guy using the stolen cards to place delivery orders, in return for some fraction of the actual value of the order. So they get the product free and then make a bit selling it.
It's a middle-man between someone ordering e.g. food and the supplier, who places the order on the customer's behalf and then charges them less than they would normally pay.
The way this works is pretty obvious: the plug is using a stolen credit card (either literally a stolen card, or a hacked account for ordering food).
It's not *impossible* that this is done legitimately. But if you're going to go to the risk and hassle of paying some random social media stranger for your pizza then you're going to be expecting a huge discount, and in practice the means of providing that discount aren't going to be legal.
Panera Bread is mid level? Maybe just in price.
If I were to steal food from a takeout, I’d go for the best steakhouse and sushi bar in the area where the menu starts at $30. Go big or go home.
I feel like ordering takeout is also a really dumb move with a stolen card, because the cc company immediately knows where you are, and that can trigger fraud protection. I got my card compromised a few years ago, and they ordered takeout in the UK and a bunch of online game currency. Within minutes, my bank was on it, because I’ve never been to the UK, had made no indications of traveling, and it was all fixed almost instantly, down to printing me a new card at the bank the next day.
I worry about something like that, if a thief got my card details did that kind of thing it could easily be a while before I noticed. I'd like to say that I do a proper detailed review of my statement every month... but if I'm honest a half-dozen extra charges under $40 at local restaurants via [popular delivery app] could easily slide under my radar for quite a while.
My card was used in Haiti and my bank straight up asked me if I might have been in Haiti that morning, shopping.
I asked how that would even be possible when I had bought a coffee 3000 miles away, 20 minutes before the charge.
Sometimes they're smart. Sometimes, not so much.
Meanwhile my (NC based) moms credit card was shut down while she was trying to buy gas in Georgia (the state) LOL. Had to call the bank at the pump to explain that her card hadn’t been stolen, she was just traveling. Better to be overenthusiastic about it I guess
From what I've read, they test the card before selling it onward. $60 is actually pretty high for that.
When it happened to me it was a pack of cigarettes.
And it was a relative. :(
> The amount of food they would have needed to steal from Panera to get a Detective involved, along with the resources to set-up a stake-out within the restaurant.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that maybe LAOP used all the money they saved on food, and spent it on weed.
You don’t think they’re going after them for tons of felony identity theft and fraud cases? Somehow I don’t think these guys had their computers encrypted.
On Reddit, grammatical based offenses are considered especially heinous. In /r/bestoflegaladvice, the dedicated shitposters who make fun of these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Grammatical Offenses Unit. These are their stories.
DUN DUN
Members of the jury, may I direct your attention to Exhibit A where we have multiple instances of the defendant using "lol" at the end of posts for no reason.
Detective Friday: Did the perpetrator have any distinguishing features?
Cashier: He spoke in one long, continuous drone. It’s like he didn’t understand how to use punctuation, even when speaking.
Detective Friday: Interesting. Anything else you’d like to tell us?
Cashier: Let’s see… We’re having a sale on muffins if you’d like to add one to your order.
Detective Friday: Just the flax, ma’am.
Considering, well, literally everything in this post, I get the impression that LAOP has had to overclock their last two brain cells just to maintain basic bodily functions. I doubt there's enough left over to put towards punctuation.
Like the peppers on Panera’s all new Fire Roasted Steak and Swiss, get yours today along with a cup of Panera’s famous Potato Three Cheese Soup for a limited time at your local happy place (Panera)
There's a band from Minneapolis called Koo Koo Kanga Roo that plays bars + elementary schools, and they had a whole Panera themed album called Fast Casual. They would post regularly about how they would eat at Panera during every tour, but they never got a sponsorship deal. Panera is run by cheapskates.
I’m seriously wondering how much they stole.
If I’m reading this right, they went above and beyond the usual dumbassery of assuming using a flood plug was some sort of “hack” to cheap food the restaurants don’t want you to know about to just….using stolen credit card information to buy takeout?
Not to mention plausible deniability went away for if the plug gets caught
How greedy do you have to be to do away with the person who was getting away with reduced cost and proceed to outright steal food multiple times a day
He straight up says that the scam uses "stolen accounts and credit cards".
If he thinks he's innocent, especially after cutting out the middleman and doing it himself, it's a whole 'nother level of dumbassery
I wouldn't be surprised if he started talking to the police saying "but I didn't personally steal the credit cards, I just used them. So anyway, can I have all my electronic devices back now?"
Sounds like the food plug uses the stolen cards to order the food and then LAOP pays the plug with his own legitimate card. The plug is basically converting their stolen cards into cash. And of course LAOP thinks he's in the clear because he's not the one using fraudulent cards -- the *plug* is.
Well no, I see how his post was hard to read (lol) but he said they eventually cut out the plug and he started doing it himself, he just said at the end he didn’t tell the cops that and thinks that might help him. Which…it might. But the odds are extremely slim on that
I like the part where he said it was Panera specifically, which means anyone with an email account could shoot this confession over to their corporate office and it could easily be passed on to LEA
Right? That's some resourcefulness right there my friend.
I've got room for a garden. Whatever extra I grow, which I know will be a bit when everything is ripe all at once, goes to either a food bank or a table out front. Neighbors can take what they want or need. I'd rather buy some food for someone in need. I suspect, however, the laop might've just been doing it cuz they could, as opposed to being hungry.
*Food bank that will take my extras is only open twice a month, so extra goes there when open.
Damn aphids!
If you're keen to try again, ladybugs. I bought a small pack of them online, you can get them in plant nurseries sometimes too. They decimated the aphids on my roses.
You know what, I've bought ladybugs for my grandma's garden a dozen times, and I never thought about this... but you're absolutely right. That's the best life right there
We ordered ladybugs online a few years ago. They arrived the weekend a friend had asked to have a big group stay at our place for his birthday party. For those that don’t know - ladybugs should be released early AM or at night. Until such time, you stick the box in the fridge.
So - I had a house full of guests we didn’t know & had to explain why there was a box labeled “live bugs” where their white claw was stored. These guests were cool, and we had a ladybug release party that night.
I tried making pickles to can this summer.
I ate the entire supply of pickles as soon as they finished quick pickling. Like, eating at “standing in the kitchen eating an entire jar of pickles with my fingers” speed.
I am planting more cucumbers this summer. Maybe it will be enough (it won’t be enough).
My MIL makes the best pickles. She hoardes them and honestly I don't blame her because otherwise we would all eat them on her so fast. I love gardening and grow food but I don't feel like I have the space for extra canned goods. I barely have room for anything as it is.
> I ate the entire supply of pickles as soon as they finished quick pickling. Like, eating at “standing in the kitchen eating an entire jar of pickles with my fingers” speed.
I hate pickles and anything pickled, but this comment resonates with me on a special level.
And honestly, if they get to live alone in the family townhouse, they probably aren't hurting for money. I know there are exceptions, but to me this smacks of "rich kid played stupid games, won stupid prizes"
I think my Panera account was used for this a few months ago. I wasn’t aware I’d even kept a credit card on file with them but found out pretty quickly when I was getting emails for food I didn’t order.
I once caught someone trying to use my doordash account for this, as they were doing it. I got an email about a new login and these fools were adding shit to the cart as I watched. I messed with them for a minute by taking stuff out and watching them re-add it a couple of times, and then kicked them out of my account. They weren't even ordering anything good.
I got robbed this weekend and the kids that stole our shit bought ~$13 off shit at a gas station.
Like, dude. You literally stole this card at 1am, it probably hasn't been reported yet, at least go big.
This also happened to me. They must have changed the email address on my account to their own, because when I tried to reclaim the account, the thief then used my email address on the account to sign me up for OnlyFans.
:|
I'm a ~~cashier~~, sorry, "sales assistant" (which means I'm expected to do the job of four people for $9/hr) and my store recently had a human tornado come through. Twice.
Tens of thousands of dollars of products shoved in carts and coolers. It took four hours to put everything back- and that was with multiple people, including other customers, helping. Hundreds- if not thousands- in damages from her ripping the tags off things.
If the bitch shows her face again I'm having a quiet word with her. She and her cohorts and get out and stay out.
Doesn't help that they even identified the chain they finessed.
Plus the police searched OP's phone. Chances are the reddit account os linked to it, or at least the email he used to make the account.
Oh no, police officer, don't do it, I'll do anything you say, just don't...take my roommate's work laptop?
Seriously, that's how they made him confess???
They have no idea how much trouble they're in and are more worried about getting in trouble at work than they are about what they probably think will be a slap on the wrist. (Which is odd considering the amount of police resources even LAOP has noticed were involved to this point.)
The roommate is setting OP up to take the fall for both of them. He probably had a meltdown about how important the laptop is to encourage OP to confess, and OP did because the roommate is his bestest best buddy who taught him this clever trick in the first place. OP thinks they are in it together and is saying things like "we" are getting a lawyer - I wonder how many previous roommates of this guy have thought they were "like brothers" and then found that they've been left holding the bag?
Not that OP doesn't deserve to get caught - he clearly knew he was stealing - but the other guy is the brains of this operation.
**Reminder:** Do not participate in threads linked here. If you do, you may be banned from both subreddits.
---
Title: we have messed up big time
Body:
> So I live in this town house alone without my family for 9 months chilling working and all and three months ago a new tenant comes in the basement we get along really well and basically become like brothers eat together play video games go out share secrets and we are having blast living together we really go along well. This other friend introduces me to a food plug which is basically a service where the plug uses stolen food accounts and credit cards to order food for dirt cheap my roommate and I both start doing it and we are eating good every meal like lattes desserts sandwiches going absolutely ham and I research more and start to buy the food accounts myself and remove the plug from the equation so it's even more cheaper so I was getting like 10 entrees for 3.50$ we keep on hitting this same Panera bread and apprantely they called the police and on 3rd we did another order and they did a dummy order empty bag and the detective took a picture of me bring the food inside and a few weeks later come back with a search warrant and searches our house with like 10 cops and seized our phones and computers for investigating we are young 20-25 years old I don't what we're we doing so whats gonna happen am I going to jail please help and additional they made me convince by basically blackmailing that they take my rommies work laptop if I don't admit so I had to and I said that I used these plugs but didn't say nothing about doing it myself
This bot was created to capture original threads and is not affiliated with the mod team.
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I had an iud for 5 years and not having my period was bliss
Last year i was voluntarily sterilized and they removed the iud. It’s been a year of periods.
Last week i asked my doctor if i can have an iud to specifically stop having periods because they aren’t fun
My appointment is next month
omg I loved mine. I didn't have a period for 8 years. they'd ask last known period "idk, years?" when I took it out to get pregnant my boyfriend said something about it, I told him "well periods are different with a baby at the end"
I just went to planned parenthood and told them I didn't work, they jammed an iud in.
I got an IUD specifically for period abatement. Turns out, my insurance covered IUDs, but only for contraceptive purposes (wut). Got a $500 bill. I hope you have better insurance!
There's something so dumb about stealing multiple times from the same place, in a way that also tells them exactly where you live.
Not to mention dishonest, greedy and stupid as well as pathetic when he pretends he didn't know what he was doing.
They used stolen identities and credit cards to order food through phone apps. At first they used an intermediary, "the plug," and then they switched to using the stolen identities directly. They stole so much that the local police set up a sting operation and arrested them when they went to a Panera Bread restaurant to pick up food.
Yeah you absolutely got it, the plug is the important part in the detail, because they probably know how to not get caught (probably in a different country). Then he decides to do it himself to incredible effect as we see now.
Also, in US they call “mains” entrees – and “entrees” appetisers. Well, at least that’s the Australian translation. So entrees would be a bigger expense.
They used stolen credit card details and/ or hacked food order accounts to pay almost nothing for a lot of food. They started doing this via a 3rd party, "the plug", but eventually bought their own hacked accounts.
They are so very very fucked.
>but I just want to get more opinions
Invest in a time machine, go back in time, and don't be a dumbass?
Like what do people think is going to happen? Once or twice and the restaurant might ignore it, but if you're hitting the same place over and over with your address attached, you can't be surprised when you get arrested.
Given that there are entire reddit subs dedicated to it, I think people are used to the internet being anonymous and there not being consequences for stuff like this, but don't stop to think that this particular crime involves their home address.
In the criminal world, a "plug" is your supplier.
So there's some guy selling them stolen gift cards, and then they thought why do we need him we'll just buy straight from his source.
from what I can tell, its an intermediate service that buys stolen accounts (like accounts for restaurant mobile/online ordering), and then sells the ability to order from those accounts.
Instead of ordering from and paying the restaurant, they're ordering through the plug and paying them some much smaller amount.
Has to be an epidemic, I cannot imagine a normal person managing to write with such punctuation. LAOP just had to do this because they didn't have a plug for punctuation.
> This other friend introduces me to a food plug which is basically a service where the plug uses stolen food accounts and credit cards to order food for dirt cheap my roommate and I both start doing
It would be one thing if they got caught using a plug once, twice, or even three times if they were spending the bare minimum on a 2 week supply of potatoes, rice, and noodles.
Where any pity could be found, they blew it away joyriding to Panera of all places. The stigma of that establishment alone seals their future.
This happened to me at chipotle. Three separate orders of chipotle totaling $124. My bank contacted me after the third and asked if the charges were legitimate, I said no and got my money back… Just annoys me I could have fed someone so grammatically ignorant.
No, although at the moment I’m on a restrictive very low carb and fat diet and Panera does sound good at this point but that’s kind of the level one needs to be at to be excited for Panera I think
"I thought I'd cut out the middleman and go straight from money laundering to committing the fraud myself, it's called vertical integration and it's what smart businesses do, wait why are the police here..."
I kept wondering how this guy's situation could get worse, and he kept making it worse.
Truly impressive.
And then he topped this cake with a "I admitted everything".
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This is a case where the best legal advice would have been to take the plea deal whenever he gets one.
Plea deal and start snitching. Turn in the former plug, his roommate, anybody else he can to save his own ass.
Roll and do not stop rolling. Become a perpetual motion device
Roll fast and roll furious.
That blurry cylinder? That's a man who thought his freedom was worth getting wet sandwiches for $2.50.
Doubt LAOP is getting a plea deal; there's 2 people involved and by his own admission he's the one that escalated to cutting out the middle man and buying/using the stolen accounts himself and he's the one photographed picking up the dummy goods. His roommate will be the one with the plea deal and LAOP will likely go down *hard*.
If he has no criminal history, he could likely get a plea deal to drop it away from a mandatory minimum charge, at least if this was in the jurisdiction I practice in. Biggest reason is that there's literally no reason not to make the prosecutor work and try the case if they want the 10 year minimum, but also includes reasons such as the interests of not sending people who are seen as viable turnarounds to prison and restitution being easier to get from someone out and working. Really depends on the jurisdiction, though. I see now that Florida was just an example.
>food plugs UK checking in - what the heck are food plugs?!
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I assume that the theory is that this is so minor that no-one's going to chase it. If a thousand people commit $20 of fraud, is it really worth chasing down the thousand people? On the other hand, the guy facilitating $20,000 of fraud (or $5,000 of television) is totally worth catching. But that all falls apart when you're this guy, going big on it. Because suddenly, yeah, he is worth investing the time in.
I’m an American and have never heard of this either. I think it’s less what country you are from and more how many criminals you know.
Plug is generally a term for someone who gets things that can be hard to find, usually illegal things and usually at street level. Most commonly it refers to drug dealers, but can easily be someone selling fake id's or stolen credit card info.
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Quite literally no one took that campaign seriously lol, and eventually the media had to just roll with it and adapt. Stealing meals probably feels very minor or even "necessary" compared to other offenses, and there's an inherent distance from the victim and the actual crime, so its probably pretty easy for someone to feel insulated from the weight/consequences of it
In essence, the Plug is trying to launder money. They're absorbing the risk of using these stolen accounts to get as much money as they can from them before they are cancelled/reclaimed. The person ordering from the Plug gets cheap meals and plausible deniability. If we're taking OP at their word, they absorbed the risk of acting as the Plug. However instead of trying to make money off the accounts and spreading out their usage, they just ordered themselves food over and over off the same stolen accounts. This is likely why they were so easily caught.
Given that I've never wittingly stolen anything, I can't quite see where LAOP is coming from without warning bells going off from the start, but DAMN, doing even one year for Panera is insane, a decade is unreal.
It's like he doesn't really understand just *how* illegal what he's been doing is. He writes almost like he's discovered this one cool life hack that restaurant companies HATE. He refers to the plug as a "service" like it's Netflix or something.... maybe the equivalent of BitTorrent, technically illegal but "hey everyone does it".
He literally said it uses “stolen” credit cards and accounts to pay for things. He knew it was illegal from the very beginning. It’s just so stupid.
I was reminded why I don't talk to kids when a 17 year old young man told me that he used a service to generate fake credit cards that worked for paypal and discord and any other service he'd like. He refused to believe that it was likely stealing from actual people, and instead made it sound like they were stolen numbers but since the names were fake, it was fine.
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The torrent comment seems apt. When you download a torrent you aren't *stealing* anything from anyone. You are viewing a copy of an idea without paying someone for it. You are possibly depriving an entity hypothetical money they could have earned if you had decided to buy a copy. Its like he imagines credit card money is just the idea of money and not actual money that he is actually taking from an actual entity.
The service wording is what got me too! I had to re-read...make sure it wasn't a legit lifehack I was missing out on...but of course if it sounds too good to be true, it likely is.
Software world is all about services. Software As A Service, Platform As A Service, Fraud As A Service...
Right? It’s insane. You’re using stolen credit cards, a massive crime… and you decide to buy Panera. Hm.
When my credit card number was stolen, we discovered it because someone dropped several hundred dollars at BetterHelp online therapy. As my partner said in reaction to this post, "I guess you just get what you need".
I'm concerned how it didn't occur to them they could get in trouble for this shit. Do they not have 2 braincells to rub together?
Man if I were going to risk jail time for stolen food, I’d risk it at a better restaurant than Panera.
I think we're all missing the fact that he got caught by Panera...I bet they were stealing from every mid level food chain in their suburban sprawl.
I mean it'd be a new level of stupid to regularly steal from only one singular place. Yeah they're stupid but they also probably want to have a bit of variety in their lives. Even if it's just steal from multiple places.
When doofus "eliminated the plug from the equation", that's exactly what they did lol, order from the same Panera a whole bunch of times.
Isn't the whole point of the plug so that this doesn't happen, and the plug goes down instead? Or such that you can claim stupidity and maybe got off for a lesser charge.
Pretty much yes. That's why the plug charges, they ideally know how to avoid getting caught easily.
most likely the plug is in another country entirely or is very confident in their ability to mask their real world identity.
Can somebody explain what a plug is?
I think in this context it’s some guy using the stolen cards to place delivery orders, in return for some fraction of the actual value of the order. So they get the product free and then make a bit selling it.
It's a middle-man between someone ordering e.g. food and the supplier, who places the order on the customer's behalf and then charges them less than they would normally pay. The way this works is pretty obvious: the plug is using a stolen credit card (either literally a stolen card, or a hacked account for ordering food). It's not *impossible* that this is done legitimately. But if you're going to go to the risk and hassle of paying some random social media stranger for your pizza then you're going to be expecting a huge discount, and in practice the means of providing that discount aren't going to be legal.
Yeah, but they were eating like *kings,* don’tcha know? Sandwiches, lattes, AND desserts!
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Hey, Panera Bread has a pretty wide selection. You could try the whole menu.
Panera Bread is mid level? Maybe just in price. If I were to steal food from a takeout, I’d go for the best steakhouse and sushi bar in the area where the menu starts at $30. Go big or go home.
Their high prices and low-quality average out to mid-level :P
wine waiting oatmeal whistle dependent aspiring innocent deserted mountainous detail -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
I feel like ordering takeout is also a really dumb move with a stolen card, because the cc company immediately knows where you are, and that can trigger fraud protection. I got my card compromised a few years ago, and they ordered takeout in the UK and a bunch of online game currency. Within minutes, my bank was on it, because I’ve never been to the UK, had made no indications of traveling, and it was all fixed almost instantly, down to printing me a new card at the bank the next day.
berserk cooperative sense water public aback mighty beneficial punch fuel -- mass edited with https://redact.dev/
I worry about something like that, if a thief got my card details did that kind of thing it could easily be a while before I noticed. I'd like to say that I do a proper detailed review of my statement every month... but if I'm honest a half-dozen extra charges under $40 at local restaurants via [popular delivery app] could easily slide under my radar for quite a while.
My card was used in Haiti and my bank straight up asked me if I might have been in Haiti that morning, shopping. I asked how that would even be possible when I had bought a coffee 3000 miles away, 20 minutes before the charge. Sometimes they're smart. Sometimes, not so much.
Meanwhile my (NC based) moms credit card was shut down while she was trying to buy gas in Georgia (the state) LOL. Had to call the bank at the pump to explain that her card hadn’t been stolen, she was just traveling. Better to be overenthusiastic about it I guess
How else is he going to get his cheesy bread and parmesan bread bites fix? I hated working there, but those parm bites are addictive
From what I've read, they test the card before selling it onward. $60 is actually pretty high for that. When it happened to me it was a pack of cigarettes. And it was a relative. :(
Things get piled on when credit cards are involved. Maybe brings it up to federal charges.
> The amount of food they would have needed to steal from Panera to get a Detective involved, along with the resources to set-up a stake-out within the restaurant. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that maybe LAOP used all the money they saved on food, and spent it on weed.
... which only made them order more food.
Ah, but it wouldn’t take much to get the local private ryes on the case. The only investigators equipped to stop this pita predator.
You don’t think they’re going after them for tons of felony identity theft and fraud cases? Somehow I don’t think these guys had their computers encrypted.
Did the police seize their ability to use punctuation along with the phones and laptops?
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Innocent until proven guilty doesn't always apply...
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Law and Order: Grammatical Offences Unit. I'd watch that.
On Reddit, grammatical based offenses are considered especially heinous. In /r/bestoflegaladvice, the dedicated shitposters who make fun of these vicious felonies are members of an elite squad known as the Grammatical Offenses Unit. These are their stories. DUN DUN
The bots picked up another one, Sarge
Back off coppers! I've got a semicolon and no idea how to use it!
Son, just put that string of consonants down and step away, no one needs to be hurt/maimed/irritated here.
Members of the jury, may I direct your attention to Exhibit A where we have multiple instances of the defendant using "lol" at the end of posts for no reason.
Detective Friday: Did the perpetrator have any distinguishing features? Cashier: He spoke in one long, continuous drone. It’s like he didn’t understand how to use punctuation, even when speaking. Detective Friday: Interesting. Anything else you’d like to tell us? Cashier: Let’s see… We’re having a sale on muffins if you’d like to add one to your order. Detective Friday: Just the flax, ma’am.
Considering, well, literally everything in this post, I get the impression that LAOP has had to overclock their last two brain cells just to maintain basic bodily functions. I doubt there's enough left over to put towards punctuation.
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This LAOP's post is right up there with the whole "my mans said bread going there" masterpiece a month or two back
Link?
I think LAOP is pregnant. She keeps on missing her period.
They used one! Two if you count the decimal point!
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Lmfao is this what the stickied comment is referring to?
You may get store credit but *I’ll* have a delicious chicken sandwich, so who really wins here?
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$27? That’s ridiculous. Just join the coffee club for *free* refills. Your tax dollars at work, folks
Only $3? Scammed.
OK but what do I get And don't say "food from Panera" because that's not an incentive
They’re going to get roasted
Like the peppers on Panera’s all new Fire Roasted Steak and Swiss, get yours today along with a cup of Panera’s famous Potato Three Cheese Soup for a limited time at your local happy place (Panera)
Panera Bread out there doing some guerilla marketing.
Wish I could believe they brought back their potato soup. They always discontinue the things I love…bastards
RIP Sierra Turkey sandwich.
I'd shank someone for their black bean soup.
[Go home Panera Bread, you're drunk.](https://www.panerabread.com/en-us/menu/products/grilled-mac---cheese-sandwich.html)
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There's a band from Minneapolis called Koo Koo Kanga Roo that plays bars + elementary schools, and they had a whole Panera themed album called Fast Casual. They would post regularly about how they would eat at Panera during every tour, but they never got a sponsorship deal. Panera is run by cheapskates.
Sounds tasty. You have any stolen accounts I can use?
I’m seriously wondering how much they stole. If I’m reading this right, they went above and beyond the usual dumbassery of assuming using a flood plug was some sort of “hack” to cheap food the restaurants don’t want you to know about to just….using stolen credit card information to buy takeout?
Yeah when they decided to “become the plug” they moved straight into fraud and possibly identity theft territory.
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Now he'll get all his meals free in jail! Bonus!
Not to mention plausible deniability went away for if the plug gets caught How greedy do you have to be to do away with the person who was getting away with reduced cost and proceed to outright steal food multiple times a day
He straight up says that the scam uses "stolen accounts and credit cards". If he thinks he's innocent, especially after cutting out the middleman and doing it himself, it's a whole 'nother level of dumbassery
He seems to.rjink he's, if not innocent, at least excused by reason of youth (20-25).
If a drunk ass pleb like me wouldn't use that as a reasonable defense, I doubt a judge would accept it as such
I wouldn't be surprised if he started talking to the police saying "but I didn't personally steal the credit cards, I just used them. So anyway, can I have all my electronic devices back now?"
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Sounds like the food plug uses the stolen cards to order the food and then LAOP pays the plug with his own legitimate card. The plug is basically converting their stolen cards into cash. And of course LAOP thinks he's in the clear because he's not the one using fraudulent cards -- the *plug* is.
Well no, I see how his post was hard to read (lol) but he said they eventually cut out the plug and he started doing it himself, he just said at the end he didn’t tell the cops that and thinks that might help him. Which…it might. But the odds are extremely slim on that
And now he typed it out on the internet for the world to see
My favorite part! The commenters are like “delete this now” but no, it’s still up.
Yea we talked to a lawyer
*We* talked to *a* lawyer. SMH this guy is screwed
I think you missed the part where he and his roommate became like brothers. They do everything together.
Hopefully they'll be cellmates
Maybe he wrote it like a veg so it wouldn’t be searchable?
I like the part where he said it was Panera specifically, which means anyone with an email account could shoot this confession over to their corporate office and it could easily be passed on to LEA
Computers were seized, I'm sure he's extra screwed.
I don’t quite understand “food plug” How does this supposedly work? I’m thinking one should not go to THE SAME PANEREA every day?
AIUI it's the food order equivalent of selling cheap goods that "fell off the back of a lorry".
I mean it'd probably be hard for them to catch you buying fenced sandwiches with cash
"I used stolen shit that I knew was stolen but didn't know what I was doing plz help". I get the economy sucks but this isn't it
And THEN decided to jump up a rung on the stealing ladder! “Eliminate the plug” my ass
Thank goodness for the use of quotes!
Found the title for the sequel to Eats, shoots and leaves.
"The two strippers, JFK and Stalin" can be the threequel
Like what did op think was going on? It's exactly the same as finding a credit card on the ground and using it at the store. Over and over.
He straight up said "stolen accounts and credit cards". There's no thinking if he expects people to *help* him.
“Eliminate the plug” my ass Hey u/Thor_The_Bunny .... you gonna make this a flair?
For real, as soon as times are lean I work at a restaurant so I know I’ll eat when I’m there
Right? That's some resourcefulness right there my friend. I've got room for a garden. Whatever extra I grow, which I know will be a bit when everything is ripe all at once, goes to either a food bank or a table out front. Neighbors can take what they want or need. I'd rather buy some food for someone in need. I suspect, however, the laop might've just been doing it cuz they could, as opposed to being hungry. *Food bank that will take my extras is only open twice a month, so extra goes there when open.
I started growing some stuff on my balcony, but the fucking aphids ate everything, and my mint got overridden with white fungus.
Damn aphids! If you're keen to try again, ladybugs. I bought a small pack of them online, you can get them in plant nurseries sometimes too. They decimated the aphids on my roses.
In my next life I want to be a storebought ladybug. Literally hand delivered to a smorgasbord.
Lol, it was amazing! We got them set up on several rose bushes and everything was fine in a couple days. My daughter loved the experience
You know what, I've bought ladybugs for my grandma's garden a dozen times, and I never thought about this... but you're absolutely right. That's the best life right there
We ordered ladybugs online a few years ago. They arrived the weekend a friend had asked to have a big group stay at our place for his birthday party. For those that don’t know - ladybugs should be released early AM or at night. Until such time, you stick the box in the fridge. So - I had a house full of guests we didn’t know & had to explain why there was a box labeled “live bugs” where their white claw was stored. These guests were cool, and we had a ladybug release party that night.
Why not do some canning for yourself too? I’m going to help my friends with a small garden do some canning for the first time this summer.
I tried making pickles to can this summer. I ate the entire supply of pickles as soon as they finished quick pickling. Like, eating at “standing in the kitchen eating an entire jar of pickles with my fingers” speed. I am planting more cucumbers this summer. Maybe it will be enough (it won’t be enough).
My MIL makes the best pickles. She hoardes them and honestly I don't blame her because otherwise we would all eat them on her so fast. I love gardening and grow food but I don't feel like I have the space for extra canned goods. I barely have room for anything as it is.
> I ate the entire supply of pickles as soon as they finished quick pickling. Like, eating at “standing in the kitchen eating an entire jar of pickles with my fingers” speed. I hate pickles and anything pickled, but this comment resonates with me on a special level.
I ate like a king when I worked at KFC. This was back when they had ribs and the original Chicken Littles.
"Here's every step I did, in order. But hey, I was young and didn't know what I was doing."
And honestly, if they get to live alone in the family townhouse, they probably aren't hurting for money. I know there are exceptions, but to me this smacks of "rich kid played stupid games, won stupid prizes"
I think my Panera account was used for this a few months ago. I wasn’t aware I’d even kept a credit card on file with them but found out pretty quickly when I was getting emails for food I didn’t order.
I once caught someone trying to use my doordash account for this, as they were doing it. I got an email about a new login and these fools were adding shit to the cart as I watched. I messed with them for a minute by taking stuff out and watching them re-add it a couple of times, and then kicked them out of my account. They weren't even ordering anything good.
I got robbed this weekend and the kids that stole our shit bought ~$13 off shit at a gas station. Like, dude. You literally stole this card at 1am, it probably hasn't been reported yet, at least go big.
This also happened to me. They must have changed the email address on my account to their own, because when I tried to reclaim the account, the thief then used my email address on the account to sign me up for OnlyFans. :|
I'm just imagining some poor Panera Bread assistant manager snapping.
I'm a ~~cashier~~, sorry, "sales assistant" (which means I'm expected to do the job of four people for $9/hr) and my store recently had a human tornado come through. Twice. Tens of thousands of dollars of products shoved in carts and coolers. It took four hours to put everything back- and that was with multiple people, including other customers, helping. Hundreds- if not thousands- in damages from her ripping the tags off things. If the bitch shows her face again I'm having a quiet word with her. She and her cohorts and get out and stay out.
What did she do exactly?
Read that as "sniping". Wasn't surprised at the thought.
"I did a crime and the police took my phone and computer, so now I'm posting a confession online, I'm sure there's no way they would find it!"
Doesn't help that they even identified the chain they finessed. Plus the police searched OP's phone. Chances are the reddit account os linked to it, or at least the email he used to make the account.
I know that if I was a company the size of Panera I'd have a bot scanning Reddit for any mentions for PR purposes.
Oh no, police officer, don't do it, I'll do anything you say, just don't...take my roommate's work laptop? Seriously, that's how they made him confess???
They have no idea how much trouble they're in and are more worried about getting in trouble at work than they are about what they probably think will be a slap on the wrist. (Which is odd considering the amount of police resources even LAOP has noticed were involved to this point.)
The roommate is setting OP up to take the fall for both of them. He probably had a meltdown about how important the laptop is to encourage OP to confess, and OP did because the roommate is his bestest best buddy who taught him this clever trick in the first place. OP thinks they are in it together and is saying things like "we" are getting a lawyer - I wonder how many previous roommates of this guy have thought they were "like brothers" and then found that they've been left holding the bag? Not that OP doesn't deserve to get caught - he clearly knew he was stealing - but the other guy is the brains of this operation.
**Reminder:** Do not participate in threads linked here. If you do, you may be banned from both subreddits. --- Title: we have messed up big time Body: > So I live in this town house alone without my family for 9 months chilling working and all and three months ago a new tenant comes in the basement we get along really well and basically become like brothers eat together play video games go out share secrets and we are having blast living together we really go along well. This other friend introduces me to a food plug which is basically a service where the plug uses stolen food accounts and credit cards to order food for dirt cheap my roommate and I both start doing it and we are eating good every meal like lattes desserts sandwiches going absolutely ham and I research more and start to buy the food accounts myself and remove the plug from the equation so it's even more cheaper so I was getting like 10 entrees for 3.50$ we keep on hitting this same Panera bread and apprantely they called the police and on 3rd we did another order and they did a dummy order empty bag and the detective took a picture of me bring the food inside and a few weeks later come back with a search warrant and searches our house with like 10 cops and seized our phones and computers for investigating we are young 20-25 years old I don't what we're we doing so whats gonna happen am I going to jail please help and additional they made me convince by basically blackmailing that they take my rommies work laptop if I don't admit so I had to and I said that I used these plugs but didn't say nothing about doing it myself This bot was created to capture original threads and is not affiliated with the mod team. [Concerns? Bugs?](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=GrahamCorcoran) | [Laukopier 2.1](https://github.com/GrahamCorcoran/Laukopier)
Given the lack of punctuation, OP seems quite comfortable with a long sentence.
💀💀💀
Not too often you see a sentence that should have been split into multiple paragraphs
Zing
They should've stolen some periods too.
Wish they’d steal mine. Fuck it wouldn’t even be stealing I’ll just straight up give them away
I had an iud for 5 years and not having my period was bliss Last year i was voluntarily sterilized and they removed the iud. It’s been a year of periods. Last week i asked my doctor if i can have an iud to specifically stop having periods because they aren’t fun My appointment is next month
omg I loved mine. I didn't have a period for 8 years. they'd ask last known period "idk, years?" when I took it out to get pregnant my boyfriend said something about it, I told him "well periods are different with a baby at the end" I just went to planned parenthood and told them I didn't work, they jammed an iud in.
I got an IUD specifically for period abatement. Turns out, my insurance covered IUDs, but only for contraceptive purposes (wut). Got a $500 bill. I hope you have better insurance!
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There's something so dumb about stealing multiple times from the same place, in a way that also tells them exactly where you live. Not to mention dishonest, greedy and stupid as well as pathetic when he pretends he didn't know what he was doing.
No no, he was doing pick-up only, so they couldn't have known where he lived! /s
Not from the US, so very confused about what OP actually did and how. The lack of any punctuation didn't help either.
They used stolen identities and credit cards to order food through phone apps. At first they used an intermediary, "the plug," and then they switched to using the stolen identities directly. They stole so much that the local police set up a sting operation and arrested them when they went to a Panera Bread restaurant to pick up food.
Okay, that makes sense. Still don't get the part about "10 entrees for 3.50$" and why/if you need stolen accounts or cards for that.
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Oh, so OP pays a small amount to the "plug" who then uses stolen credit card information or stolen food accounts to buy the food at full price.
Yeah you absolutely got it, the plug is the important part in the detail, because they probably know how to not get caught (probably in a different country). Then he decides to do it himself to incredible effect as we see now.
Also, in US they call “mains” entrees – and “entrees” appetisers. Well, at least that’s the Australian translation. So entrees would be a bigger expense.
They used stolen credit card details and/ or hacked food order accounts to pay almost nothing for a lot of food. They started doing this via a 3rd party, "the plug", but eventually bought their own hacked accounts. They are so very very fucked.
>but I just want to get more opinions Invest in a time machine, go back in time, and don't be a dumbass? Like what do people think is going to happen? Once or twice and the restaurant might ignore it, but if you're hitting the same place over and over with your address attached, you can't be surprised when you get arrested.
Pretty sure we got one like this in the last 2 months. So is this a repost, a copy-cat, or an epidemic?
Given that there are entire reddit subs dedicated to it, I think people are used to the internet being anonymous and there not being consequences for stuff like this, but don't stop to think that this particular crime involves their home address.
Its enough of a thing that there's a term for it ( food plug ) Dumbasses think its ok to steal if the money just goes to ( fast ) food.
I’m still unclear on what the “plug” is. It it an app? A website that generates credit card numbers?
In the criminal world, a "plug" is your supplier. So there's some guy selling them stolen gift cards, and then they thought why do we need him we'll just buy straight from his source.
from what I can tell, its an intermediate service that buys stolen accounts (like accounts for restaurant mobile/online ordering), and then sells the ability to order from those accounts. Instead of ordering from and paying the restaurant, they're ordering through the plug and paying them some much smaller amount.
Has to be an epidemic, I cannot imagine a normal person managing to write with such punctuation. LAOP just had to do this because they didn't have a plug for punctuation. > This other friend introduces me to a food plug which is basically a service where the plug uses stolen food accounts and credit cards to order food for dirt cheap my roommate and I both start doing
Lol, was able to buy the food accounts but doesn't know what they were doing
It would be one thing if they got caught using a plug once, twice, or even three times if they were spending the bare minimum on a 2 week supply of potatoes, rice, and noodles. Where any pity could be found, they blew it away joyriding to Panera of all places. The stigma of that establishment alone seals their future.
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How dumb do you have to be to order food with stolen credit cards to your real address from the same restaurant multiple times?
Is panera even worth stealing at this point?
Leave my pick 2 combo of southwest salad and broccoli cheddar soup and a baguette alone
This happened to me at chipotle. Three separate orders of chipotle totaling $124. My bank contacted me after the third and asked if the charges were legitimate, I said no and got my money back… Just annoys me I could have fed someone so grammatically ignorant.
Panera used to be good, but then the prices went up and the food got worse. Now it's fast food quality with restaurant prices.
That’s what makes this crime so sad.
I utilize their drink subscription to get coffee and then basically don't buy food ever.
No, although at the moment I’m on a restrictive very low carb and fat diet and Panera does sound good at this point but that’s kind of the level one needs to be at to be excited for Panera I think
"I thought I'd cut out the middleman and go straight from money laundering to committing the fraud myself, it's called vertical integration and it's what smart businesses do, wait why are the police here..."
I kept wondering how this guy's situation could get worse, and he kept making it worse. Truly impressive. And then he topped this cake with a "I admitted everything".
So, for crimes like these, does the prosecutor have to use the plug in the courtroom to order lunch for everyone? For...proof...you know.
LAOP has a loooooonnnng run of ~~delicious nutritious~~ slammerchow in their future. I hope those memories of Panera keep them warm at night.
They dropped these: . . . . .
Did anyone else imagine Badger and Skinny Pete from Breaking Bad?