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Aug 12, 2023

Conn. man hacked restaurant's system, redeemed $20K in gift cards

Next up in 5 Example video title will go here for this video BLOOMFIELD, Conn. — A Bloomfield man was arrested and charged after police said he gained access to more than $200,000 in unauthorized

Next up in 5

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BLOOMFIELD, Conn. — A Bloomfield man was arrested and charged after police said he gained access to more than $200,000 in unauthorized Wood-n-Tap gift cards, spending more than $20,000 of that money over the course of a few years.

On Wednesday, the suspect, 34-year-old Calvin Ortique, was charged with Computer Crimes in the 1st Degree, Forgery in the 1st Degree, Identity Theft in the 1st Degree, Larceny in the 1st Degree, and Conspiracy to Larceny in the 1st Degree.

The State Department of Transportation has confirmed that Ortique is one of its employees. The online payroll database reports that he is a transportation rail officer for the state.

“This has been a long journey. We expect it to continue,” said Phil Barnett, Co-CEO & Co-Founder of the Hartford Restaurant Group, which owns Wood-n-Tap.

Barnett said he and his team started to notice something was off in 2021 when customers were reporting that their gift card balances were depleting without them ever spending a dime.

In their investigation, Newington Police found that Ortique allegedly hacked into a point-of-sale system that managed loyalty and gift card numbers and redeemed more than $20,000 in value at the Newington Wood-n-Tap and at least six other Wood-n-Tap locations beginning in 2020.

Eventually, they found that people who purchased or received gift cards in the fall and winter of 2020 were the ones being impacted.

“We believe he did it online through the computer system. And was able to get into it that way and once he got into it, was able to have a procedure in place. I don’t want to get into specifics into what he did for the case because obviously, it’s still ongoing and we’re still looking more into it," said Sgt. Ryan Deane with the Newington Police Department.

However, police don't believe the suspect acted alone. They said Ortique and other co-conspirators allegedly presented some of the stolen card numbers on fraudulently created e-gift card images. Police are expecting more arrests to come.

“We have very skilled and very well-trained detectives and police officers at the Newington Police Department. We take technology very seriously. Obviously, as society moves, so do we. And we’ve moved along with the times to make sure that we have the capabilities to investigate these types of crimes,” Sgt. Deane said.

NEXT on @FOX61News: 34-year-old Calvin Ortique of Bloomfield (a CT DOT employee) was arrested and charged for allegedly spending more than $20,000 in stolen gift card money from 7 @WoodNTap locations in CT. But we’re learning he (& others) had access to WAY more $ than that pic.twitter.com/i6SPToZ59n

“Our first priority is our guests and we felt we owed it to them to find out how this happened, who was impacted by the theft, and—most importantly—how to make things right for our guests,” Barnett said. “We understand that guests were disappointed and inconvenienced when they went to use their legitimate cards that had been unknowingly compromised,” he continued. “While we were investigating, we replaced funds on hundreds of cards as they were brought to our attention. Once we had the answers, including gift card numbers that were illegally obtained, we went to great lengths to contact guests and reload their cards.”

When the company was alerted to the issue, they were not shocked but hurt.

“Hurt, anger, that someone would do this to our guests, disappointment, sad, and then happy to feel like we have this information so we can give our guests the answers they deserve," Barnett said.

The affected loyalty cards that were compromised had balances ranging from $30 up to $700. However, Barnett made it clear that no personal information was stolen, just the money connected to the gift card balances. For years, the company has been working to find out who did it.

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“Somebody took their money unwillingly, unknowingly, and used it for their own selfish benefit. That inspired us as a company to find out, what’s going on here. And it just kept going and going and we’ve been working on this for years," Barnett said.

Though many customers have already been reimbursed, the company believes there may be more out there who haven't reached out yet. They're encouraging guests who got gift cards in the fall or winter of 2020 to check their online balance. Guests can do so at woodntap.com, and those who believe they have been affected can contact Loss Prevention at Wood-n-Tap at [email protected].

In the meantime, Newington Police will continue to investigate. Police ask anyone with additional information to contact them at 860-666-8445.

On a similar note, if anyone ever feels like they've fallen victim to something similar, police encourage you to reach out to them, no matter how large or small the dollar amount.

“It may be minuscule to them, however, in the bigger picture of the investigation, it may affect a lot of other people,” said Sgt. Deane said. “If somebody is willing to take 50 cents from you, they’re also willing to take a lot more from somebody else.”

Julia LeBlanc is a reporter at FOX61 News. She can be reached at [email protected] Follow her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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