Police tracked an organized crime ring from a quiet Utah town through southern California, Illinois, Nebraska, and Wisconsin after it made off with thousands of dollars from unsuspecting shoppers in a boom of “distraction thefts.”
The St. George Police Department has reported 37 distraction thefts — in which criminals enter stores and other public places in a group to target vulnerable people — in just the last year. The problem began getting worse in 2021, Sgt. Zack Bahlmann told Fox News.
Many of these criminals are associated with Romanian and South American crime rings coming out of California, the outlet reported.
“Predominantly, we have these suspects working in groups of two or three entering business establishments,” Bahlmann said Wednesday. “One person will engage. They’ll identify a target. They’ll look for a person that has a purse or a wallet that’s in the shopping cart or readily accessible.”
In a time when Americans are already dealing with record-high inflation in the prices of groceries and other household items, these perpetrators have learned how to pick on consumers to pull a fast one.
“One of the people will engage the target, ask them a question about the product, something to divert their attention away from that cart,” Bahlmann explained. “Then another person will pull something out of the cart.”
Jairo Gavida-Monroy, 37, Andres Fabian Villanueva-Rodriguez, 32, and a third man — all Colombian nationals — were finally arrested in August after a string of distraction thefts across multiple states.
Two of the men are accused of snatching a woman’s purse from her shopping cart in a home improvement store on May 18 and then using her bank cards at a nearby store in the same complex, Fox reported after viewing surveillance footage.
Police said the victim’s cards were charged $1,138 just minutes after she was robbed, then later another $1,050 from a nearby pharmacy.
The suspects allegedly repeated the crime on another shopper at a grocery store on the same street about an hour later.
They charged the second victim’s cards for $6,250, police said.
According to the affidavit, one criminal would make the purchases while the others would “hover” around “acting as a lookout.”
The trio was finally captured in Wisconsin months later but not before it made its way through California, Illinois, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.
A Honda CRV associated with the three men had been “traveling in and out of those areas” around the time that similar thefts took place in each jurisdiction, Fox News reported.
“We have really worked to build our investigative network because of the transient nature of these crimes,” Bahlmann said. “They will commit a crime here and then cross state lines. We can track these groups as they’re moving and ID people from other agencies.”
Police said another suspected thief, who is reportedly linked to a Romanian crime ring, was known to “shoulder surf” customers at grocery store self-checkouts to get their PINs, approach them under the guise of returning a dropped $20 bill, and steal their wallets.
While Bahlmann said that man was “very good at what he does,” the sergeant said he was finally arrested in Florida after other law enforcement agencies helped to track him across the country.
Data obtained by the outlet from the Utah Attorney General’s Office reveal that many of these cases originate from Californian criminals who come to Utah, Nevada, and Idaho to target unwary people.
“It’s pretty astonishing that they’re so bold,” Bahlmann said.
Former U.S. Rep Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) told Fox News Digital that these thieves appear to be “targeting areas that aren’t used to these big-city crimes.”
“I think they’re banking on the idea that they can prey upon the naivete of a population that isn’t used to seeing these things,” Chaffetz said.
“What the criminals don’t know is that Utah is pretty tough on crime. It’s not California; they’re not going to just let you go. They’re going to incarcerate you, then they’re going to prosecute you. Beware, they think [all of] America is like California, but it’s not,” he warned.