Mercer Island police are investigating a former QFC employee for stealing more than 60 credit card account numbers and using them to buy gift cards.
Detectives believe Feisal Said bought the gift cards at Seattle QFC and Fred Meyer stores and used them to create other credit cards with his name.
However a spokeswoman for QFC said none of the stolen credit card numbers came from any QFC, Kroger or Fred Meyer store.
"Our security systems are state of the art and we have fraud protection protocols in place to protect our customers," added Amanda Ip, spokeswoman for QFC.
Mercer Island detectives said they are still trying to find out where Said got the stolen credit card numbers.
One victim who lives on Mercer Island believes that her credit card number was taken without her even knowing it was gone. She said she still had her credit card in her possession. She saw about $2,500 of unauthorized charges on her account and called police.
"I went into a panic and it was such normal places like QFC and Qdoba and I thought (how) am I ever gonna show this was a theft, it was pretty normal, it terrified me," said Kristen Howell.
She was able to get her money refunded through her bank.
Detectives believe Said bought the gift cards from March through April at QFC locations in Seattle.
He was already banned from any QFC, Kroger or Fred Meyer for a theft charge at a QFC in 2013.
Said was convicted in April for issuing himself fake refunds when he worked at QFC as a cashier in 2010.
"It definitely does feel like an invasion; it felt like we had been robbed even though they hadn't come into the home, it felt like they had," said Howell.
Officers are still working on putting the case together to forward to the prosecutor's office.
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