Woman steals cell mate's debit card number, bails herself out of jail

One woman in Naples, Florida, wasn't exactly scared straight by a stay in the local jail.

As the Naples Daily News reports, 25-year old Crystal Stephens admitted to detectives that she stole a piece of paper from her cell mate, on which the cell mate had written down her own debit card information. Stephens then used the card to pay for a bail bond. She didn't stop there, though — Stephens also used the money to purchase items at the jail commissary, and bought a plane ticket for a friend, for a total of $1,733 in charges.

After her release from jail, the cell mate discovered these charges, and quickly suspected that Stephens had been the culprit. She then called Liberty Bail Bonds to confirm.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Meanwhile, Stephens herself was already back in jail on charges of shoplifting. Stephens has been charged with grand theft, fraud, and illegal use of credit cards; she now faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in state prison for fraud, and five years on each of the other charges.