A victim of a distraction theft is warning Halton Hills residents that it just takes a few seconds to have your valuables stolen.
The woman (name withheld to protect her identity) was shopping at Food Basics in Georgetown last Thursday around 3 p.m. After putting her groceries in the car, she placed her purse on the passenger seat, closed the door and walked around her vehicle.
As she reached the driver’s door, a man in his mid-40s to early 50s approached her car and told her there were wires dangling from the back of her vehicle.
Having recently had someone hit her back bumper in a parking lot, the woman was concerned it might have happened again. She went to the back of the car and the man pointed out the wires to her.
He had her hold the wires while he checked underneath the car. After pretending to fix the problem, which took just a matter of seconds, the woman went on her way.
But when she visited the next store and went to pay, she noticed her debit and credit cards missing. Though she had cash in her wallet, it was just the three cards that were taken.
“I should have known better,” she said. “They definitely know what they are doing. I should have just told him I’d have it checked out by my mechanic, but he was very persistent.”
She said she's usually careful to keep her purse with her, over her shoulder. She made sure not to leave it in the car while returning her cart.
Cst. Jeff Dillon of Halton Police said incidents like this are typical of distraction thefts.
“With distraction thefts, suspects tend to work in teams of two or more, with one suspect distracting you in one manner or another,” he said, “but typically to lure you away from, or steer your attention away from your valuables.”
He said while these incidents can happen anywhere, they typically occur in shopping environments. Thieves tend to take debit or credit cards, leaving the victim unaware that anything has happened until the next time they use their cards.
Thieves will sometimes follow a person in a store, watch them enter their PIN while paying and then use distraction techniques to steal their card once they leave. An incident like this recently happened at Giant Tiger in Acton. In that case, three people worked as a team to steal the cards and then later accessed the victim’s accounts at an ATM.
The woman at Food Basics also had her accounts accessed through her debit card.
Police suggest the following tips to avoid having valuables stolen:
- Keep bags or wallets with you at all times; never leave them unattended
- Keep purse zippers or snaps closed
- Be extra vigilant in crowded locations
- Keep your wallet at the bottom of your bag
- Never write down PIN codes or passwords and keep them in your purse or wallet
- Have different PINs for each card
- Avoid carrying large sums of money
- Don’t carry extra cards, only bring what you need
- Leave you SIN card, passport and birth certificate at home
- Don’t get distracted - thieves work in teams - and be aware of your surroundings
Dillon said if you feel you were the target of an attempted distraction theft, even if it wasn’t successful, contact police. He said information gathered from these attempts can help police solve past or future thefts.
The suspects in the Food Basics case are described as a white male around 40-50 years old, average build, wearing a hat, blue jacket and blue jeans.
The second suspect is described as a white female, 20 to 40 years old, wearing a white winter hat, white jacket with fur collar, blue jeans, running shoes, carrying a black purse, wearing a face covering.
The woman said she doesn’t like that the incident has made her less trusting. She still doesn’t know if she will be reimbursed for what was taken using the cards.
“It’s an awful feeling,” she said. “It’s such a heartless thing to do. I just don’t want it to happen to anyone else.”
