Action 9: Contractor shares warning after Lowe's account falsely used

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — There's a warning Thursday from one contractor to others.  He told Action 9 how someone ran up thousands of dollars in just hours on his account at Lowe's.
 
Richard Nordman said he shops there "all (the) time. ... We make purchases every day, multiple times a day."
 
He has a business account he and his 14 workers can use.  He said recently someone he didn't know went to the Albemarle Road store with his account number, but no account card.  The clerk was suspicious and called Nordman.
 
"He said, 'Hey, I got such-and-such here to pick up your order,' and I said, 'Now, that guy does not work for me, call the police,'" Nordman said.
 
The clerk refused to sell the man his order, but, for whatever reason, did not call police. 
 
Then, someone went to the University Lowe's twice over the next 24 hours and got away with it both times, walking away with $7,600 worth of supplies.
 
Police tell Action 9 their main goal is to find the person who "called in" the fake orders because that person could face even more serious charges than the actual shopper.
 
"I'd like to find out who the person is. If it's a group of people, if they do it here just in Charlotte or nationwide," Nordman said.
 
He also wants to alert other contractors.
 
"It's not only me it's probably happening to. Probably happens to a lot of other people," he said.
 
Nordman feels lucky he caught the charges and that the store isn't holding him responsible for them.
 
Lowe's promised to send a statement about how it protects customers from fraud, but seven weeks and multiple emails later, it had not.

WSOC