Starters Waitress Accused of Swiping Customers' Credit Card Numbers

DETROIT (WJBK) - Let's start by saying that Ali Saad is one standup guy. He's the owner of Starters Bar and Grill in downtown Detroit.

Here's why we're singing his praises, and you probably will, too.

"I treat all my employees as if we're family. You can ask any employee I have working here, and they're tell you as if I'm a big brother, father figure to them," he said.

That is exactly why what allegedly happened last week really hurt. One of his servers told him she thought she saw another server stealing. So, Saad went into his office and checked all 27 of his cameras.

"Immediately, I contacted the authorities, and the authorities came down and they did what they had to do," he said. "In front of everybody, they arrested her. They walked her through the dining room. Everybody (saw) her."

"It wasn't worth it, and if you really needed the money that bad, there's something else you could've (done)," said Christina Lee, a server at Starters.

26-year-old Arevia Watts was not pocketing cash. According to the cops, she was swiping people's credit cards, twice.

This is what we're told she did. One swipe of the customer's card for starters.

"But then she had a little device," Saad explained. "You grab it and you swipe the card through, and what that device does is it records the information."

Once a skimmer scammer has that, the damage they can do is downright devilish. They can take you for all you've got.

Saad said police, "Came over here. They checked her. They took the skimmer. Secret Service came in. They took the camera information. They (saw) everything that happened, and I wear that as a badge to know that I'm protecting my customers."

"Now we have … a higher security. We actually take our customers with us when we swipe their credit cards … and take those precautions now just so they feel comfortable and they return and keep coming back," Lee told us.

They're also looking into something else.

"Where our severs can actually swipe your credit card at the table and not go anywhere with your information," said Saad. "Thank God that the device she had still held all the information so that the information was never transferred anywhere. Nobody's information was compromised from Starters Bar and Grill."

Police say she admitted to scanning 13 cards and three on the day she was arrested. If convicted, she could spend ten years in prison.