Man Returns $10,000 Walmart Debit Card To Store, Now It’s Gone Missing
UPDATE: Green Dot — the company that services the Walmart MoneyCard — tells Consumerist that its investigation of this story gives it reason to believe it may all be a hoax. More details on the questions and inconsistencies with the man’s story can be found HERE.
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ORIGINAL POST
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Walmart claims that there is no way this card, found by a man working at an Alabama fast food restaurant, could have more than $1,000 on it.
The man, a college student at the University of South Alabama, says he was recently sweeping the parking lot while working at a Captain D’s eatery when he came across the card. Checking the balance on the register inside the restaurant, he claims it showed a balance of $10,446.88 on the card.
He initially was overjoyed, especially since he needed a new car, but he ultimately decided that the right thing to do was turn the card over to Walmart and hope someone there could identify the rightful owner.
And so the man took the card to a nearby Walmart and turned it over to a customer service rep.
Here’s where things get strange.
When the man went back to inquire if the owner of the card had been found, the store pleaded ignorance.
When AL.com asked the Walmart manager, he said the store didn’t have the card and directed questions to Walmart HQ.
The corporate office gave a response that was even more baffling, claiming that not only was no one able to locate the card but that it’s not possible for the card to have more than $1,000 on it.
“So it is basically my word against a big company like Walmart,” says the man who found the card.
We think some of the confusion with Walmart HQ might lie in local media reports’ reference to the card as a “gift” card. The actual Walmart store reloadable gift card does have a maximum allowable balance of $1,000, but the card shown in photos shared by the man who found it does not appear to be a standard gift card.
It looks like the card is a Walmart MoneyCard, the store’s co-branded reloadable Visa debit card. These cards can have significantly more than $1,000 on them. The only limit stated in the terms of the MoneyCard [PDF] is a maximum daily reload limit of $2,999.
We’ve contacted Walmart HQ to ask for clarification regarding its claims of a $1,000 maximum balance. This post will be updated if we hear back.
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