A North Carolina resident ended up spending far more than she bargained for after visiting her local cafe last month.
Rhonda Deaver, a loyal customer of Smith’s Cafe in Kinston, headed to the eatery after attending a doctor’s appointment on April 30.
However, disaster struck when she misplaced her credit card and left the building without it in her possession.
Advert
And an employee's attempt to help her out went very, very wrong.
Their simple error has sparked a serious storm and has been picked up by news stations across North America. Check it out below:
After leaving the US eatery, Rhonda was quickly notified by a bank representative that she’d left her card behind.
Advert
It’s said that while she immediately returned to Smith’s Cafe, an employee had already gone to great lengths to find her.
An anonymous worker at the establishment had snapped a photograph of her card and uploaded it to a Facebook group called ‘Word of Mouth Kinston’.
The post read: “Hey guys Mrs Thonda Deaver you’ve left your debit card here at the store.
“We have placed it in a secure location please if you know her know we have it and would love to make sure it’s returned!!”
Advert
Alongside the anonymous employee’s goodwill gesture, they included a picture of the front and back of Rhonda’s debit card.
Due to having her sort code, bank account number and security code on full display, the customer’s privacy was shot.
This unfortunately led to some severe consequences for Rhonda.
Advert
Upon being reunited with her debit card, she quickly realised someone had used it to wrack up around £1,600 worth of debts.
Thankfully, some had been declined but there was ‘a whole lot that went through’ before she successfully closed the account.
Speaking to ABC 7 about the ordeal, the North Carolina women said: "I couldn’t believe that they [Smith’s Cafe employee] did that.
“But I was sick, thinking I might be responsible for all those charges.”
Advert
She continued to tell WRAL that she currently lives on a fixed income.
Rhonda added that she doesn’t have ‘extra money every month to cover’ the new bills.
Following the incident, Better Business Bureau's Meredith Radford has claimed you should never upload pictures of a debit or credit card to social media.
“You definitely should not post the credit card online,” she told MailOnline.
“I would be worried about people being able to reverse that somehow. And even if it's to find the person, it's easy enough to cancel your credit card and get a new one with your company. It's not worth it.”
LADbible Group has contacted Smith’s Cafe for further comment.
Topics: Food and Drink, Money, Social Media, US News, Facebook
Ella Scott