HUNTSVILLE — The hundreds of Huntsville residents whose debit and card numbers were stolen at a local restaurant and sold on the black market all over the world have not only been asking that question but answering it.

The police. The restaurant. The Huntsville Item. We know because they told us on Facebook.

By the way, if you haven’t “liked” The Item on Facebook, we hope you will.  To “like” us is not necessarily a show of affection for your local newspaper — it’s the door into a rather lively community, one we treasure and appreciate for its sometimes wince-worthy candor.

The Secret Service told us it disagrees that investigating authorities should be responsible for not warning the community sooner that Margarita’s Mexican Restaurant was where the breach of security occurred. Their job is investigation and apprehension.

Then whose job was it? The restaurant’s, says the feds. Local authorities, however, stepped in front of our popular local restaurant, arguing that the business itself was also a victim. At the time and in a stroke of community paternalism, The Item agreed.

We shouldn’t have.

So — one of our neighbors who used his credit card at Margarita’s in May but whose card had not yet been hacked, traveled 1,110 miles from home on a business trip and almost didn’t get home. Luckily had other means to pay his travel expenses, but what if he hadn’t?

Similarly, other Huntsville residents suffered losses, inconvenience and the indignity of having a card declined because of the theft of numbers that occurred at the restaurant they favored with their business. Likewise, banks and credit card companies are out hundreds if not thousands of dollars because of what happened in Huntsville.

The Item warned its readers of this massive case of fraud through the enterprise of its reporters — by following up on rumors and listening to the police scanner. The paper could have —and should have —followed up on early rumors about what business had been linked to the crime.

That way, we might have been able to alert you to the threat that remained even after we reported that the “problem” had been fixed. That buck stops on the desk of the managing editor.

Some of you said you appreciate the quandary The Item and local authorities faced — warning consumers or protecting a victimized business. And yes, we want investigators to investigate and businesses to be accountable to their customers. But, to the best of its ability, the local newspaper should have your back when no one else does. We apologize.