Winnipeg woman victim of identity theft after storage locker break-in while mourning mother abroad

“What happened to me is definitely a nightmare.”

That’s how Winnipeg’s Maria Pazmuring describes the last few weeks – when her storage locker was broken into and documents obtained were used to steal her identity.

And all of it happened while she was 12,000 kilometers away paying respects to her recently deceased mother in the Philippines.

Pazmuring was overseas for two weeks to see family after her mother passed away in March. While travelling, she logged into her RBC online bank account and noticed a suspicious transaction on her credit line for a withdrawal of $1,750 in Winnipeg. But Pazmuring never withdrew the money

“So I called the bank and I said ‘that’s not me,’ and asked ‘can you guys do something about it, can you restrict my credit line?’”

The next morning Pazmuring wanted to check her online banking, but the accounts were no longer accessible. She called the bank who informed her they had frozen the accounts.

That’s when Pazmuring realized she was in a different country with no access to her money.

“So that was April 2. My scheduled return to Canada was April 8,” she said.

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On April 8, Pazmuring landed in Vancouver and immediately went to an RBC branch to have her accounts unfrozen. She arrived in Winnipeg the following day, where she was told someone else pretending to be her had come into the bank.

“There were two people that came in the branch that tried to impersonate me, so all of that… I didn’t know what’s going on, until I checked my storage (Sunday).”

Pazmuring reached out to CityNews to share her story. Winnipeggers can share news tips or story ideas with CityNews here or on social media.

Pazmuring knew something was wrong when she got to her storage locker and noticed the lock on her unit was different than the lock she normally uses. She asked the day manager at Access Storage to cut the lock off, and when the door was opened it was clear someone had broken into the unit while Pazmuring was laying her mother to rest.

“Everything was ransacked, and my tax documents were missing, some of my personal items were missing, so I knew then that, that’s where everything started.”

Police say don’t leave documents in storage lockers

Pazmuring contacted police who began an investigation.

Winnipeg police issued a reminder to the public that the safest place to store personal documents are in a safety deposit box at a financial institution or electronically in an encrypted storage device that is not connected to the internet.

In an emailed statement to CityNews, RBC said: “We realize that any time a client is impacted by identity theft or any fraud, it can be a difficult and stressful situation for them. Identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in North America. It is an industry-wide issue.”

Pazmuring says she now knows 24-hour-a-day security cameras, barbed wire fences, and locked storage units are not enough keep sensitive financial or personal documents safe.

“So you need to not leave your important documents in storage lockers,” she said. “That’s my lesson, and that’s what everybody should know.”