Police in the Northwest suburbs of Atlanta are on the lookout for a two-women tandem that has used the allusion of prayer to distract and steal from gullible supermarket shoppers, who leave their personal items inside their cart.
The Paulding County Sheriff’s Office posted an alert bulletin on Monday to its Facebook page warning local shoppers throughout the Atlanta metro area to be wary of friendly strangers in stores who start up conversation and then offer to lead in prayer, claiming to try and help solve a shopper’s personal problems.
The police alert states that a team of two women are carrying out a prayer distraction scam on unsuspecting shoppers at local stores in the tri-county area. The scam entails one of the women distracting a shopper by sparking up a conversation that ultimately leads to the targeted victim bowing her head as the woman leads in prayer, while the partner sneaks up and swipes the shopper’s credit cards, cash and other valuable personal items that are sitting in the cart as the shopper is distracted.
Police have surveillance footage of one instance where the scammers struck at a Walmart in Hiram, Georgia. There, they made their move of talking, praying and stealing credit cards and cash from a woman’s purse, which was in her shopping cart.
“A female suspect usually strikes up conversation with a female patron in the store. After a few minutes, the suspect then asks the patron to pray with them. Once the patron bows their head, another female suspect comes in and steals that person’s cash and credit card out of their purse,” the police alert explains. “This is happening at stores all across the metro Atlanta area and has occurred at the Hiram Wal-Mart.”
As Atlanta’s news channel 2, WSB-TV, reports, the clarity in Walmart’s surveillance video has helped police to identify the women they believe have been orchestrating the prayer scam. The scammers are believed to be Shayla Sutherland and Jessica Pina.
Investigators will meet on Tuesday to map out the locations where the two are said to have also conducted distraction thefts. Police believe the same scammers struck in various stores spanning across three Georgia counties directly to the Northwest of Atlanta: Cobb, Douglas and Paulding.
“I work hard for all I get and when people think they can just take it, it’s unbelievable,” shopper Mercedes Shropshire told WSB-TV.
Source and Original Content by CP