LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT)- With thousands of holiday shoppers making the season merry and bright, Lexington Police investigators say every year they see an increase in thefts and reported thefts.

"We are very busy this time of year," explained Detective Mike Helsby of the Lexington Police Department.

While investigating credit card thefts, Detective Helsby says the financial crimes unit often comes across an alleged victim of thefs disputing hundreds if not thousands in credit card charges.

"Once the transactions have been reported as fraud, most of the time, the bank will refund your money," he said.

Which means for the short term, these alleged victims get their shopping sprees paid for.

"Once the bank refunds the money, the customer's bank becomes the victim," Helsby explained.

When working these potential credit card theft or fraud cases, Lexington Police rely heavily on surveillance video. That way they can see who's using the credit card and when.

"If we are able to prove it's the victim, without a doubt making charges on the credit card. We do charge," Helsby said.

Police say they're fed up with these reindeer games.

"We don't like to waste our time working cases that are unfounded when we could be working legitimate cases."

Falsely reporting an incident is a misdemeanor charge. Folks can be jailed for up to a year and be fined.