The busy holiday season is also a time you have to be more aware of thefts. Local 12 Troubleshooter Howard Ain says women are particularly vulnerable because they carry around money in a purse, which makes for an easy target for thieves.
Forest Park Police Detective Laurie Bello says this is the time of year when such thefts are on the rise. And this year, while the nation is in an economic downturn, thefts are definitely up. "Oh yes definitely. We're already seeing an increase in like our grocery stores where people leave their purses sitting in their cart and then turn their back just for a second to pick up something off the shelf. It only takes a second as soon as you're let your purse out of your site."
People like Roxanne Dingman of Fairfield say she's learned it can happen anywhere. "I was in a restaurant, put my purse on the back of my chair, stupid mistake, and I was looking at the menu. I turned around to get my glasses and I noticed this guy all of a sudden appeared in the seat behind me and I thought oh, where'd he come from."
He turned out to be a thief who stole her wallet and his group quickly began using her debit card. "They went to 2 or 3 different best buys. They purchased 3 thousand dollars worth of gift cards and then went to other best buys to cash those gift cards in. So I've been able to track and I've come up with a suspect. We need some help trying to identify that person."
If you have information about the suspect, call Crimestoppers at 352-3040. You don't have to give your name and can get a reward. DINGMAN: "
HOW MUCH ARE OUT? Oh I haven't even tallied that out. Between getting my driver's license and getting my birth certificate because what I've had was not acceptable. Paying bank fees, I don't know right now its somewhere around 27-hundred dollars."
Dingman says she expects her bank will return the money to her account. But the time and aggravation of replacing all the items stolen is going to be considerable. She's learned never to keep her Social Security Card in her wallet, because now she has to replace that as well. And she's put a fraud alert on her credit report because all her personal information is now in the hands of thieves.
Bottom line, always keep an eye on your purse. And while it's store policy to always check identification on credit cards, as this case showed, that doesn't always happen.
