As the woman handed him the package, she turned away from her shopping cart, where surveillance footage of the incident shows a second man then approached the cart, rested his jacket on the side of the shopping cart, reached into the woman’s purse and stole her red leather wallet, according to a police report.
When the man who asked for the turkey saw his accomplice had completed the theft, he walked away, Oxford police Sgt. L.G. Owens said.
The woman did not notice the theft until a couple of hours later, when she received a phone call from a clerk at another department store who told her a man was attempting to use her credit card without permission.
Oxford police are still searching for the suspects, who may have used the woman’s credit cards to spend as much as $2,000 before the cards were cancelled, the police report shows.
Owens said this type of theft — often referred to by police as “distraction theft” because it involves two accomplices, one who distracts the shopper with small talk or questions while the other steals the victim’s unattended valuables — is one of the oldest tricks in the book, but it still plagues Oxford retailers and their customers.
Owens said busy times of the year like holidays, the start of the school year and the start of summer usually bring a spike in distraction thefts, but they’re also something officers deal with on a monthly or even weekly basis.
“It (the distraction method) has been around forever, because ultimately … it works,” Owens said. “It’s hard to catch the suspects for this kind of thing.”
Police say the difficulty in netting perpetrators of this age-old thieving method arises because victims usually don’t know they’ve been robbed until long after the crime has occurred.
Thieves who use distraction tactics to steal an unsuspecting victim’s purse, wallet or other valuables usually frequent large department stores like the ones that make up much of Oxford’s large retail base, Owens said.
After completing the crime, thieves usually head over to the Quintard Mall or another department store at the Oxford Exchange, where they will use the credit cards as quickly as possible, often to buy gift cards that can be used to purchase other goods and can’t be cancelled by the victim, according to property crime investigators with Oxford police.
Owens said the relative ease and speed of the process helps to ensure distraction thefts will never go out of style, unlike other thefts that involve more high-tech techniques like counterfeiting and computer hacking, which can be prevented as banking institutions and retailers acquire prevention technology.
“It’s an age-old crime that still happens … pretty much everywhere,” he said.
Consumers most at risk are the elderly and people who shop alone, according to a Crime Stoppers fact sheet on distraction theft.
Owens agreed, noting that most Oxford shoppers who fall prey to this type of crime are women — young and old — who shop by themselves.
And although credit card companies and banks are usually prompt at resolving issues with stolen credit and debit cards, Owens cautioned that distraction theft often leads to more serious identity theft problems. That’s because it gives thieves access to a slew of personal information and a jump-start on using it to commit more serious crimes.
“Don’t trust people you don’t know, always be aware of your surroundings, and don’t walk away from your shopping cart,” Owens said.
Contact staff writer Cameron Steele at 256-235-3562
