Missoula Crime Report: Theft of Debit Cards and Bank Info

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - The Missoula County Attorney’s Office filed 13 new felony complaints this week, which is eight fewer than last week and less than the weekly average. According to County Attorney Matt Jennings, four of those were violent crimes. 

“We had five felony property crimes, and these were all related to theft of debit cards or bank information being used fraudulently online,” Jennings said. “We get a lot of that and it seems like it gets more and more pervasive. Our detectives are really amazing at solving these cases, but they take a ton of work and time because basically someone will be missing money from a bank account and we have to track down every bank account number, business that was used at, surveillance, and on and on.” 

Jennings said they take those cases seriously, but they require a lot of resources. 

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“The best thing that people can do is make sure that they keep those passwords secure in their accounts, that they track their bank account information, that if they lose a debit card they put a pause or cancellation on that right away because prevention is going to be the best way to avoid any losses that may not be recouped,” Jennings said. 

Jennings said they also had a handful of drug crimes, and almost all of them were related to other criminal behavior, which is why they prioritize those cases. 

“We are always being challenged by new drugs coming into our community and how that's impacting folks, especially young people or vulnerable populations, and then how that contributes to crime,” Jennings said. “We are also trying to balance those issues of making sure people are law-abiding and safe, but really trying to be understanding that addiction is a tough thing that traps people in a cycle of use sometimes when that wasn't their life goal. We try to actually make sure that there's also help in our system. It's not all punishment, it's a lot of rehabilitation.” 

READ MORE: Missoula News - Crime Reports

Jennings is really proud of the balancing act that our criminal justice system has on punishment when necessary, but also really trying to focus on the root cause of bad behavior. 

The Missoula County Attorney’s Office provides a weekly crime report every Friday morning at 9:00 on Talk Back.