Someone attending a local church event not only stole the purse of a Darien woman also at the event, but then started using the victims credit cards.
Darien police gave this account of the theft:
There were about 100 attendees at an event held on the grounds of St. Luke’s Parish Church, 1864 Post Road, at about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 28 when one of them, a 44-year-old Darien woman, left her purse on a table and went to another area of the same room.
About five or 10 minutes later, she returned to get her purse, which wasn’t there.
She and several other people tried to find it, but couldn’t.
The purse (valued at $398) contained the victim’s:
- iPhone 6 (which she valued at $300; although they usually cost more than that)
- sunglasses (valued at $100)
- various keys
- a wallet with credit and debit cards
- about $150 in cash
That comes to a total of $948, just in the immediate loss of the purse — but the thief wasn’t done.
The woman went home and tried to use the “Find my iPhone” location feature, but the phone had been turned off, disabling the function.
She checked her bank and credit card accounts and saw a $150 charge for an online purchase at Walmart.com. She contacted all of her credit card companies and canceled the cards. The following day, she contacted Darien police.
These other attempts were made to use her credit cards that Sunday, Feb. 28:
- 1:41 p.m. — another attempt was made at Walmart.com
- 2:19 p.m. — a $467 charge attempted at a Metro-North location (the exact location was unknown at the time of the police report but it came through the credit card company as “NYNYTVMT”)
- 3:21 p.m. — a $23.50 charge attempted at the same Metro-North location
Darien police detectives are investigating the matter.