Police Looking For Distraction Thieves Targeting Female Shoppers
Halton Police are continuing to warn the public in light of recent distraction thefts occurring in Halton Hills and Milton.
On Tuesday April 3rd, 2018 shortly after 10:00am two male suspects entered Food Basics at 235 Guelph Street in Georgetown. The suspect's distracted a female victim while shopping. They removed a cellphone from her purse that was located in the front portion of her shopping cart.
The same distraction team then attended the Food Basics located at 500 Laurier Av in the Town of Milton. Just before 11:00am, a female victim was shopping when a male began conversing with her. The male suspect asked for advice on shampoo. Shortly after the male suspect left, the victim noticed her purse was open and her wallet was gone.
The suspect's in these two occurrences are included in the attached photo. They are described as;
Suspect #1: Male, Hispanic, 25-30 years old, 5'9ft - 5'10ft, short black hair, brown eyes, medium build, clean shaven, and spoke with a Spanish accent. Wearing a black windbreaker jacket, white shirt, black pants, black baseball hat worn backwards, and possibly white shoes.
Suspect #2: Male, Hispanic, 25-30 years old, 5'8ft - 5'10ft, short black hair, brown eyes, medium build, goatee, spoke with a Spanish accent. Wearing a white sweater, grey track pants, black baseball hat with a white peak and white unknown symbol in middle front of the hat.
On Thursday March 22nd, 2018, a female victim was shopping in the Food Basics grocery store in Georgetown. At 4:00pm a male approached her and spoke with an accent. He asked the victim where he could find "Drano". The victim walked away from her shopping cart while the male stayed with her cart. When the victim found the item, the suspect proceeded to walk away from her. The victim later attended the cashier check out to pay for her items and noticed that her wallet was missing from her purse.
On Monday March 12th, 2018 at approximately 3:30pm a female victim was in the parking lot of Walmart located at 300 Guelph Street in Georgetown. While she was loading groceries into the trunk of her vehicle, two males described as South Asian, approximately 30-40yrs old, approached her in a beige sedan and asked for directions to the Georgetown hospital. During their encounter, her wallet was taken from her purse which was sitting on the trunk of her vehicle.
On Friday February 2nd, 2018 at 6:10pm a female victim was shopping at the Food Basics grocery store in Georgetown. The victim was with her husband and as they selected items, an unknown female suspect grabbed the victim's purse from her shopping cart. In this incident two female suspects appeared to be working together to commit the crime. Incredibly, this same duo then attended the Fresh and Co down the street and committed the same offence on two other unsuspecting female victims. The female suspects in this incident were described as:
Suspect #1: Hispanic or Romanian, female, 25-30 years, 5'8, average weight and build, with black hair pulled back into a bun or ponytail. Wearing a dark jacket and jeans.
Suspect #2: Hispanic or Romanian, female, older maybe 60 years, 5'8, heavy build, and dark hair. Wearing a dark knee length jacket, blue heavy scarf wrapped around her head and neck, and dark pants.
"We have had a number of these incidents occur in larger city centers in and around the greater Toronto area (GTA) and specifically in our region in 2018. Unfortunately, our 1 District (Milton/Halton Hills) are not immune to these types of despicable acts." said Detective Sergeant Dave Costantini of the one district criminal investigations bureau. "These perpetrators target the good, kindhearted, vulnerable citizens of our region and take advantage of their genuine, accommodating nature."
'We are continuing to work with our internal and external partners as well as other GTA police services in an effort to bring these individuals to justice. We are asking the public to remain vigilant, be aware of your surroundings, never lose sight of your personal belongings and report any suspicious vehicles or persons to police immediately." Costantini added.
Anyone who may have additional information concerning this investigation can contact Detective Derek Moyes of the One District Criminal Investigations Bureau at 905-825-4747 ext: 2114.
Tips can also be submitted to Crime Stoppers "See something? Hear something? Know something? Contact Crime Stoppers" at 1-800-222- 477 (TIPS) or through the web at www.haltoncrimestoppers.ca.
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