Thief swaps carts with Publix customer to steal money, Oviedo police say

Victim finds suspect pushing her cart

OVIEDO, Fla. – Oviedo police are looking for a suspect they say purposely swapped carts with another customer shopping at a Publix store and stole her money.

The woman told police she put her purse in the cart and walked away to shop.

"It's scary to know that hey, I could be busy picking out an item, looking on the back for ingredients that's important, and someone could be picking my wallet and stealing my money," customer Kristen Dobo said.

The victim said when she realized her cart was missing, she went looking for it around the store.

That's when she found the suspect pushing her cart. She told the suspect that was her purse, the woman apologized and said it was an honest mistake. They switched carts and the victim continued shopping.

"You have to know not to walk away your purse. I mean, I would never walk away from my purse anywhere," customer Anne Smith said.

The victim told police it wasn't until she got to her car to load the groceries that she noticed the cash was missing.

"I think that's called hiding in plain sight. You make it sound like you're helping and you walk away, and actually done something wrong," Smith said.

"I'm going to hold my purse instead of keeping it in the cart because I did it yesterday at Target and it was pretty far away," Dobo said.

Anyone who has information that can help the case is asked to call Oviedo police.


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