Bucks County deli warns of credit card scam after losing $15,000

WARMINSTER, Pa. (WPVI) -- The search is on for the men who scammed a Bucks County business out of $15,000 of raw meat.

Altomonte's Italian Market & Deli in Warminster says the men used stolen credit cards, and now they are calling on the public to help track them down.

"Should have raised a lot more red flags than it did, but it's the first time anything like that has ever happened," said store manager Michael Grispino.

It's not the type of scam managers at Altomonte's say they were expecting.

The local market that's been around for 55 years is known for their meats, so Grispino says when they received a phone call for an order of thousands of dollars worth of beef products, they didn't think twice.

"We just thought we were helping someone out; maybe they have a small business as well, they were bringing beef products for," said Grispino.

Store surveillance shows two men loading up their van with short ribs and oxtails, not once, but twice.

"We received one order and didn't receive anything back. We assumed the credit card everything went through, everything was fine, everything was good. We said, 'OK, we can take the order again,'" said Grispino.

In the following weeks, however, they learned those cards were in fact stolen, and the credit card company was taking back the money for the order.

Now the business is out $15,000.

Pennsylvania State Police say it's a growing credit card scam.

"This place is top notch. It's a shame to have something like that happen to them; it's not right. I hope those guys get nabbed, I really do," said Tony Mantione of Willow Grove, Pa.

The family-owned business is now calling on the community's help to identify the culprits and warning other businesses in the area to be careful.

"As soon as we got the chargeback, we did start to reach out to a few other local butcher shops, pizzerias, anything really, just to tell them to be careful, don't take any big orders. We don't want this to happen to anyone else," said Grispino.

Warminster police are hoping to identify the men and continue to investigate.