NYC mother of 6 robbed of more than $1,000 in EBT benefits

Leonarda Diaz, a mother of six from the Bronx, says she is desperate because more than $1,000 was stolen from his EBT card, with which he buys food for his family.

Díaz assured the digital team of Univision 41 that on February 24 he went to a store near his house to buy food, where he spent $100 and that, until that day, his funds were fine. But not for much longer.

“The next day, Saturday the 25th, I went to buy chicken at a nursery, and there I checked my receipt, and there was less than the amount I had”, says the Mexican immigrant.

Diaz went home to call the EBT card, where they told her that the day before, someone started charging her card: “They charged me $1, then $500, then $496, then $1 again, and $100 more.” .

“$1,098 worth of food stamp cards was stolen from me at a bodega. I want justice to be done with me.”

The New York Police Department confirmed to Univision 41 that a report for grand theft was filed at the precinct 43 headquarters with the data provided to us by Díaz. “Someone used a 40-year-old woman’s debit card 5 times to buy $1,000 worth of merchandise,” says DCPI.

For her part, Díaz is desperate: “I want justice to be done with me. and I ask for help please if you can help me get my money back. I need it to feed my children, ”she asks.

The justice that he asks for, he explains, is that he wants NYPD fully investigate who committed that crime. She suspects that this could have happened at one of the last stores she shopped at, as saw your EBT card taken a picture ofsomething that he now considers should never have happened.

“What I want is for the detectives to ask for the camera, because it was there when they took my photo,” he says.

We contacted Legal Aid attorney Ed Josephson, who told us that in cases like this, victims cannot sue the business where they suspect that the robbery happened. “They are not alone, however,” he clarifies, “Legal Aid has just filed a lawsuit against the US Department of Agriculture to demand that New York State replace food stamp dollars stolen through scams like this”.

In the meantime, Josephson said, people like Leonarda Diaz who have been scammed with their EBT should not only report the incident to the police, but also call the Human Resources Administration, to apply for monetary relief. “They may not give you the $1,000,” he says, “but at least they will give you some immediate funds.”

The list of the different offices of that department are here: https://www.nyc.gov/site/hra/locations/locations.page

The attorney also reports that due to the number of scams involving EBT cards, in December the senate approved reimbursing victims of these scams for two months of food stampsand that they are just waiting for Washington to approve that law, which could happen at any moment.