I guess I was “lucky” when the waitress just took the numbers of me and everyone else at the table and probably sold them privately rather than tell everyone. When I saw 5 charges at a Walmart in Maryland I shut down the card right away. The next week I found out that everyone at the table had their number stolen.
I was on a business trip to San Francisco and got a call from my bank to ask me (while I was still in San Francisco) if I was buying a $2,000 home theater in Miami. I had eaten at an Argentinian restaurant two hours before... one of those where they take the credit card away from the table.