By Lea Kahn, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A woman whose wallet was stolen from her purse was able to recover the wallet, after she chased down and confronted the woman who picked it out of her purse, according to the West Windsor Township Police Department.
The suspect, however, escaped before police arrived.
The victim told police that the suspect, who was described as a Hispanic female in her late 20s or early 30s, approached her while she was shopping at the Whole Foods grocery store in the Windsor Greens shopping center around noon on Nov. 25.
The suspect asked the victim random questions about different types of spices as they were standing in the International Foods aisle at Whole Foods, police said. As the suspect was talking to the victim, two other people — a man and a woman — moved closer to the victim’s shopping cart.
The second woman kicked the shopping cart, and then the two women and the man left the aisle together, police said. About 30 seconds later, the victim noticed that her wallet was missing from her purse, which was inside the shopping cart.
The victim searched the store and found the suspected thief outside the store, police said. The victim grabbed the suspect and demanded that she return the wallet. The suspect indicated that she did not speak English and did not have the victim’s wallet.
The suspect called someone on her cell phone. After the victim grabbed the suspect’s purse, the suspect began to run through the parking lot at Windsor Greens, police said. The victim continued to chase the suspect south on Route 1, until the suspect jumped into a black sport utility vehicle that was waiting near Buffalo Wild Wings.
Police searched the area for the sport utility vehicle, but could not find it.
Police said the victim was able to cancel all of her credit cards before any fraudulent purchases were made.
