Woman gets money back weeks after LAPD officer allegedly stole debit card

LOS ANGELES - The fight may have lasted several weeks, but a woman who allegedly got her debit card stolen by a Los Angeles police officer finally got her money back.

FOX 11 shared Lena Reitz's story back on August 9, nearly three weeks after she visited one of the Los Angeles Police Department's stations to bail out a relative. Shortly after her July 16 visit to the station, she noticed her Citibank debit card was missing.

Reitz called the bank, froze the card and called the LAPD after she noticed someone went all over town using her debit card. Even after the arrest of the suspect, Edmond Babaians, was publicly announced, Citibank did not issue a refund to Reitz.

The bank's decision to not immediately issue Reitz a refund back in August came as the victim did all the investigating on her own – she contacted the stores that the thief had used, including Home Depot and IKEA – asked and got a chance to see the security video with the date and time stamps of the thefts and then alerted LAPD about it.

Come to find out, it was one of LAPD's own, Babaians, who was the one allegedly using Reitz's debit card.

In spite of all this, the bank didn't issue a refund back in August.

"Enough evidence to charge a police officer," Reitz said. "But somehow, that evidence wasn't enough to look at the situation and do something for me."

Fast-forward to September, Reitz got her refund!

Citibank issued the following statement:

"Being the victim of fraud can be extremely stressful. Our goal is to make reporting unauthorized transactions as seamless as possible. On further review, we're pleased to have resolved this matter with our client, and we regret the inconvenience."

At some point, Reitz will be called to testify in Babaians' case, but she is relieved she finally got her money back.

"I don't think I would have gotten a reimbursement if it wasn't for you guys," Reitz told FOX 11's Laura Diaz.