‘Really horrible;’ Woman has over $700 in SNAP benefits stolen from account

A local woman says someone stole money from her SNAP benefit account, a program that helps families pay their grocery bills.

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Taylor Bryant relies on her monthly SNAP benefits to help feed her family in Germantown.

“It helps us out through the month,” she said. “Groceries are really high, so a lot basically.”

She was upset when she woke up Friday morning to what her August balance looked like just hours after her benefits loaded for the month.

“$766. Yes, just gone,” she said.

As reported on News Center 7 at 6:00 , the money was spent fraudulently states away using the EBT card Bryant has since deactivated.

“It says Mini Market Deli in Brooklyn, New York,” she said.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has previously told News Center 7 that they’ve been warning since March that criminals are targeting states for SNAP benefit theft.

In July, Montgomery County Job and Family Services said they’d been seeing an increase in reports of SNAP benefit fraud.

Bryant filed a police report with Dayton Police.

“They told me to just turn the report into Job and Family Services to help with the fraud case,” she explained.

Now, she hopes the criminals doing this stop.

“It’s really horrible,” Bryant said. “Whoever’s out there doing that, I wish they would stop.”

In the meantime, Bryant said she’ll have to figure out how to pay to feed her family over the next month without the over $700.

“Super hard. At this point, I don’t even know how we’re going to do it,” Bryant said.

She’s now working to get a replacement card with Montgomery County Job and Family Services, but that could take up to 30 days. She’s also working to learn how to get the fraudulent charges reversed.

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