Amy Poehler Is An (Adorable) Criminal

Amy Poehler is a fiend. An utterly delightful embodiment-of-sunshine fiend, yes, but still a fiend. And also a friend! In fact, she is both friend and fiend to Seth Meyers, whose credit card Poehler took possession of recently. She only gave it back after Meyers agreed to donate $5,000 in charity in her name. Crime can be so fun!

The saga started a few weeks back, when Poehler and Meyers went to dinner together — like SNL alumni making us jealous from afar are wont to do — and accidentally departed with each other's credit cards. Meyers realized the mistake two weeks after the dinner and called Poehler, arranging to messenger her card over to her and have his messengered back.

Only things didn't go exactly as planned, namely because of Poehler's aforementioned mischievous streak: Poehler refused to give the card back, and instead sent him a picture of herself holding both their cards and his money. She hashtagged it "upperhand" and told him she was buying a boat.

These shenanigans continued for a few days, and involved some more selfies of Poehler taking Meyers' card for a spin in Beverly Hills and reports of her using the card to check her family into a hotel. Meyers was perplexed and amused, and so he took to his show to document the process of what has to be one of the most delightful cases of identity theft in history:

The hotel incident:

The Beverly Hills incident:

And the most recent Late Night update:

This whole thing came to a very philanthropic climax, at a comedy night benefit for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Specifically, Poehler offered the card back to her longtime friend — but not before spending more of his money. But for a good cause!

Poehler's boyfriend and fellow comedian Nick Kroll was also present for this (presumably) final exchange, and all in all it was a beautiful moment. Here's a bit of the transcript from the event, via Vulture's witnesses:

Poehler: Seth, are you okay with that? I’m sure you’re cool with that, right?

Meyers: Well, I feel like you’ve constructed a situation where it would be impossible to say no, that I wasn’t cool with that.

Poehler: Well, if you don’t want to give your money on the credit card, then just tell all of these people.

Meyers: No, I think it’s fine. I think it’s good that we’re doing this.

Poehler Great. Thank you, Seth, in my name, for donating the money.

Meyers: $5,000 in your name on my credit card. I’m happy to do it. But please, can I have my credit card back? [Amy returns card.]

Kroll: And can I say, Seth, it’s so generous of Amy to do that.

Poehler: Sometimes you have to dig deep.

A fitting end. As we all learned via George Clooney, it's best not to challenge Amy "Boston" Poehler in the prank department.

Let this be a lesson to us all: Amy Poehler is a modern day Robin Hood. Don't let her near your money.