Wanted man in Hoke debit card scheme turns out to be woman

In October, Marijo Webb reported to the Hoke County Sheriff's Office that someone had racked up $1,600 in charges on her debit card. She said she had lost the card and a slip of paper with her personal identification number outside a Walmart on U.S. Highway 401 in Raeford when she stopped to get some gas.

Investigators checked security videos from where the card had been used and saw the same man each time in a brown hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses.

"(We had) no leads. We went ahead and closed the case," sheriff's investigator Jose Garcia said.

Last month, Webb went to authorities again, saying her replacement debit card had been removed from her purse when she accidentally left it in a restroom of a Hardee's in Raeford. She said someone had withdrawn $1,000 from the account.

"I was called by the bank because it was twice in five months that her credit card got lost and her PIN number,” Garcia said.

Investigators again went to the security tapes and were surprised to see the same man in the brown sweatshirt and sunglasses using the second debit card.

"This is the first time I've done a fraud investigation of this matter where it's the same guy," Garcia said. "I thought he was pretty lucky to find the same (victim)."

Deputies obtained a search warrant for Webb's home on Wallace McCain Road in Raeford and found a brown hooded sweatshirt, a pair of sunglasses and the driver's license that Webb had reported stolen from her purse, Garcia said.

Webb, 55, was arrested last week and charged with obtaining property by false pretense, attempting to obtain property by false pretense and two counts of filing a false report. She was released on a $15,000 bond.

She declined to comment on the charges Thursday when reached at the Daisy Patch Florist shop on North Main Street in Raeford, which she owns.