Recently the Boise Police had two reports of victims who had their wallets taken from their purses while shopping for groceries.

On Thursday, February 25, the victim noticed her wallet was missing when she got to the check out to pay for groceries.  She reported her credit cards were used at Boise area retailers for thousands of dollars in purchases.

On Saturday, February 27, the victim noticed her wallet was missing while shopping for groceries prior to getting to the checkout.  Fortunately for the victim, she only had her debit card in her wallet and was able to quickly cancel it before it was used.

While this type of crime is not a frequent occurrence for the area, this is not the first time we have seen similar reports.  In these instances, as with past cases, we have seen groups target retail locations, looking for someone shopping with an unzipped purse in the top of their cart.  One suspect will distract the shopper away from the shopping cart with questions of items, dropping products, etc. while the second person will quickly approach, take the victim’s wallet out of their purse, and quickly leave the store.

Because the victim will notice their wallet is missing when they go to pay for their items, the suspects will quickly go to other nearby locations and make large purchases, typically for high dollar electronics like iPads and MacBook or prepaid gift cards.

We highly encourage shoppers to not shop with their purses in their cart.  Keep it on your person and closed.

Be aware of your wallet around the register, as we also receive reports of victims leaving their wallet behind and another customer steal it.