Woman caught stealing wallet on camera in Saratoga Springs

SARATOGA SPRINGS — A woman was caught on security camera Saturday stealing another woman’s wallet at a Saratoga Springs restaurant. Earlier reports suggest it may not be her first offense.

Jade Randall Lucero said she was at Baker Village with her family around 3:45 p.m. Saturday.

“As we were about to leave, my mother reached for her purse and noticed her wallet was not in it. She went to the front desk to see if she left it there when she paid,” Lucero said. “And a little girl came to our table and said she saw the lady take it. »

Security camera footage later obtained by police shows the woman sitting at a table behind Lucero’s family with a man. The woman maneuvered her leg over to a white purse, which was located under Lucero’s mother’s chair.

She then sees a person walking towards them and the woman pushes the bag away, leaving it exposed in the middle of the aisle. Two waiters then go out to serve another table and one of them trips over the handbag on the way back. The second waiter avoids the handbag and walks around.

The woman then grabs the handbag again and searches it, grabs the wallet and puts it back under the chair. The couple leaves immediately.

“We didn’t even notice these people sitting behind us,” Lucero said. “From the cameras, they came in, sat down and didn’t even order food. It doesn’t look like they came with the intention of eating.”

Additionally, the woman bears an uncanny resemblance to the culprit in another theft caught on camera at a Herriman Panera Bread that was reported by KSL TV in December 2023. However, law enforcement has yet to respond to KSL’s request TV to confirm that this is indeed the culprit. even suspicious.

Security footage from restaurants in Utah, where the suspect has committed similar robberies, taking purses off the floor and stealing the wallets inside. The image on the left was taken on December 7, 2024, and the image on the right was taken on June 29, 2024. Law enforcement has not confirmed the identities of each person or indicated whether they are the same person. (Courtesy Joy Thomas, Jade Randall Lucero)

The next events in Lucero’s case were similar to those in the December robbery, as the suspect(s) immediately began spending money on the stolen credit cards. Lucero said she had a few cards in her mother’s wallet that had been stolen.

“They tried to charge $2,009 at Best Buy, $195 at Target in American Fork on my debit card, $704.93 at Best Buy and (again) $195 at Target on my credit card,” she said. “All were declined because we immediately canceled the cards.”

Riverton police believed the December theft was an isolated incident, according to its communications director, Josh Lee.

“I can confirm that this is certainly an isolated case. In speaking with the detectives and officers involved, this type of brazen intrusion into someone’s purse in broad daylight is not something we see very often,” he said.

However, the victim of the first incident, Joy Thomas, said she believed the suspects knew what they were doing.

““I’m sure it wasn’t their first time,” she said.

This is a groundbreaking story. It will be updated.