Four credit cards were stolen from a Darien woman having lunch with her son last week at Panera Bread, and within an hour $1,421 was charged to her accounts, police said.
Darien police gave this account:
At about 1:30, the 48-year-old woman left her seat to get her food at the counter of the 1063 Post Road restaurant. Her son, who had just gone through oral surgery, remained seated but was very groggy.
She had left her credit cards in her wallet which was in her purse, which was slung on the back of her chair at a booth in the back of the restaurant.
At about 2:20 p.m., she went elsewhere in Darien and got out her wallet to use a credit card. She noticed three of her credit cards and a bank debit card were missing, although her cash remained in her wallet.
She dropped her son off at home and immediately went to Citibank on Heights Road to ask them if any charges were made on her debit card. She found it had been used at 2:30 p.m. to buy $203 worth of items at a Target store in Stamford. She contacted a credit card company and found that $1,218 had been charged to another one of her cards from the same Target store.
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This isn’t the first time at Panera Bread that a wallet has been stolen (and credit cards from it used):
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At 2:35 p.m., American Express had declined a charge attempt at the same store. A fourth card wasn’t used.
She canceled them all and reported the matter to police. Darien police detectives are investigating and planned to look at surveillance video records from Panera Bread and the Target store.