Spending Spree
Upon checking her monthly credit card statements, a local woman discovered that someone had made unauthorized charges on her Bloomingdale’s card account, in three separate purchases, to the tune of $3,952.17. The statement didn’t reveal where the charges had been made—it could have been at any Bloomingdale’s location or online—but the woman told police that she has been in possession of her credit card the entire time. She also received a call from the customer service department of electronics store P.C. Richard & Sons informing her that they had cancelled a suspicious transaction that was attempted online, again using her credit card.

Family Squabble Turns Into Police Matter
A woman called the police on her 18-year-old daughter after a family spat turned criminal. The daughter told her mom that she had stolen her wedding ring, telling her that she knew it would hurt her. When the mother, whom police report already had an order of protection against her daughter, checked, her custom-made ring was indeed missing. The daughter said that she had sold the ring, made of yellow metal and white stone and worth $1,150, to a friend, who confirmed the story to police. He also said that the thieving daughter had used the money to fund a trip upstate to purchase cigarettes and alcohol.

Love Steals
After trying and failing to retrieve his stolen property from his vindictive boyfriend, a man resorted to the police last week. He told the cops that he had invited his boyfriend into his home, but that night the perpetrator scooped up his iPhone, a $350 pair of pants and his Chase credit card and left the apartment. He then called his victim, informing him of the thefts, but refused to return the property when given the chance. Police found several calls made to the iPhone before the man could cancel his phone account and credit card.

Sidewalk Knockout
A mom playing with her kids outside her home on Saturday night got a rude awakening that ended in a robbery and assault. A man she knew approached her and the two got into a verbal argument. It turned violent, however, when a second man, a friend of the other, stepped in, swore at the woman and hit her twice in the face, causing severe pain. She took out her phone and said she was calling the police, and the perp grabbed it out of her hands and ran down Amsterdam Avenue. Police conducted a canvass but have not located the man.

Digital financing is on the brink of a revolution, thanks to mobile commerce. With powerful new payment methods like Google Wallet building steam, more and more vendors are re-examining their payment processes in an effort to fluidly speed transactions at a time when e-commerce and online shopping pose competition for in-store sales.

On Monday, Google launched an initiative to expand its Google Wallet mobile payment system. The system provides consumers with speedy and seamless ways to pay at retail stores, turning their smart phones into a credit card point-of-sale system and replacing the need for a physical wallet altogether.

The most recent push was launched alongside discounts and “practice terminals” at Google’s newest partner retailers, which include Manhattan-based American Eagle Outfitters, The Container Store and Toys “R” Us, among others.

Toneise Holmes, manager of the flagship American Eagle Outfitters store in Times Square, was quick to note that the mobile payment option focuses on convenience and seems to make purchases smoother overall.

“People are checking in with their phones to pay and it seems to be going really well. People seem really comfortable with it. It’s awesome,” Holmes said.

“Overall, it’s smoother,” she said, but as in any crowded store, Holmes added that with some of the newness and unfamiliarity of the system, “if you have a long line it becomes an issue.”

The mobile wallet works by storing consumer’s credit card numbers on their phones so merchants can identify and accept the number as a payment method. At the moment of purchase, the user is required to punch in a four-digit PIN and tap the phone against the provided terminal. Using near field communication (NFC), the simple tap triggers the transfer of funds from either a Citibank MasterCard or a virtual Google card, which can be pre-paid by the consumer and stored in the phone.

“Eventually, your loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets, even your keys will be seamlessly synced to your Google Wallet. And every offer and loyalty point will be redeemed automatically with a single tap via NFC,” reads the “vision” section of the Google Wallet website.

So far, the digital payment method only works with one phone and one carrier—the Nexus S 4G on Sprint, along with select credit card companies. Expansion plans, however, are imminent.

Osama Bedier, vice president of payments at Google, recently said: “When we announced Google Wallet, we pledged a commitment to an open commerce ecosystem. We appreciate Citi and MasterCard for being our launch partners. And today, Visa, Discover and American Express have made available their NFC specifications that could enable their cards to be added to future versions of Google Wallet.”