0:00
hundreds of Lone Star cards compromised
0:02
and tens of thousands of dollars
0:04
allegedly stolen and only 13 has the
0:06
search War naming a state employee is
0:08
one of the people responsible ABC 13's
0:11
Luke Jones has more on the accused
0:14
Bandit they got that warrant to search
0:16
her phone last month they also say they
0:19
got a confession but at this point
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neither that woman nor her alleged
0:23
co-conspirator are being criminally
0:25
charged all told they say the women
0:27
stole more than $81,000
0:30
hundreds of lonar card holders across
0:33
the state mysteriously prevented from
0:35
using their cards and now their search
0:37
warrant we've obtained reveals why an
0:40
employee at this Health and Human
0:41
Services office in acr's homes accused
0:44
of changing the pins on 211 cards
0:47
locking the card holders out another
0:49
woman fired from her job at the same
0:51
office in 2018 accused of working with
0:53
the first woman and changing 157 pins
0:57
the women then allegedly used the card
0:59
information to buy things online other
1:02
times they're accused of selling the
1:03
information on Facebook and Instagram
1:06
investigators began looking into this in
1:08
January after an anonymous tip to the
1:11
snap fraud hotline they uncovered more
1:13
than $81,000 worth of fraud potentially
1:16
stretching as far back as June
1:19
2023 just last month they interviewed
1:22
the first woman who allegedly confess to
1:24
the scheme claiming she did it to pay
1:26
for her late son's funeral in that
1:28
interview invest investigators claimed
1:30
she said she was paid 50 cents for each
1:33
dollar of SNAP benefit she helped
1:35
steal we reached out to both of the
1:37
women being investigated for comment
1:39
only one of them got back to us that
1:41
second woman she claims she had no idea
1:44
this investigation was even going on
1:46
we've also reached out to the Health and
1:48
Human Services Commission to see if that
1:49
first woman is still employed
