If a minor steals their parents credit card, is the parent or the merchant responsible.?

Question

I work for an e-commerce company and a parent just called and said their child stole her credit card. She wanted to know what her son ordered, and claimed she was disputing the charge with her credit card company. The billing address matched what was on the card and the items were shipped to the billing address. On our end, we did everything possible to verify this card was not fraud. When a child under 18 steals their parents credit card, shouldn't it be the parents responsibility to pay the amount or return the items, instead of putting this responsiblity in the hands of the merchants, especially when a positive address verification was received. Legally, where does the responsibilitly fall?

Answer 1

Tell the parent to produce a police report.  Most parents will not have their child subject to arrest.

Answer 2

If you can justify it to the credit card company the credit card company will honor the charge....let the Credit Card company deal with the problem.

If the parents call you tell them that their credit card company is handling the problem. End of conversation........