Another rumor can be confirmed. Maura Murray was caught using a stolen credit card number in early November, 2003, according to documents received today from Amherst Police.
According to the police reports, in early November, a female student at UMass discovered some odd charges on her credit card statement. Someone had been using her credit card number to order take-out from Pinocchio’s Pizza. After calling the credit company, this student called Amherst Police who then contacted Pinocchio’s and two other area pizza restaurants. After checking their records, Pinocchio Pizza managers found that the orders had been delivered to Maura’s dorm room. That very night, shortly after Pinocchio’s was made aware of the fraud, Maura called and again tried to use the same number. Officers enlisted the deliveryman in a sting in which he would present the bill for Maura to sign. When she did, the police approached her dorm room.
The police quickly explained why they were there and took her picture (above). Maura at first gave no explanation. Eventually, she admitted using the card number, which she said she’d found on a discarded receipt in the trash.
According to the documents, the charges against Maura would have been dismissed in February, 2004, around the time she disappeared– if she managed to stay out of trouble until then.
Here’s the heartbreaking part. Maura was doing this for food. And the theft only amounted to $79.02.
To me, this hints at desperation. Life was coming down on Maura and for whatever reason she was not asking for help. Did the accident the weekend before her disappearance frighten her into running away? Did she mistakenly believe that being cited for the accident would keep these charges from being dismissed?
Why wasn’t she asking friends for help? I’m sure she could have turned to any of her friends from Hanson and they would only have been too happy to help her out.
Theft is theft and “only $79.02” is completely irrelevant, especially to the person being charged for the purchases, a student herself who could have been in dire circumstances if her credit balance changed due to the theft. Perhaps she needed her own credit line for food, as well. Food is one of the easiest things to find when you are desperate. Most people will help feed you, there are kitchens who feed you, and social food banks which will feed you. It’s far harder to have rent for housing, and transportation. Our firm, which assisted the needy, always advised “Pay the rent and the electricity, first. We can always find you free food. We can’t find you a free house.” You are correct when you say she should have reached out for help. I’m sure any family member, friend, even dorm member, or dorm supervisor or student aid, would have helped her find something to eat, as an option to stealing a fellow student’s credit card and using it multiple times. But, you are off base in saying “It was only $79.02.” There is no “only” in credit card abuse — especially because that’s the amount when she was CAUGHT. She already demonstrated she was comfortable using it multiple times, and would have done so again had she not been caught. She was a thief. It’s a tragic story yes. But don’t excuse the abuse and theft due to the amount she had enjoyed up to the point she got caught.