Something to watch out for...

[chell]

Just saw this on a website for local news.

Woman Tricked By Thieves At Wal-Mart

POSTED: 10:37 pm EST February 24, 2006


CHARLOTTE -- A woman trying to do a good deed ended up becoming the victim of thieves in a Wal-Mart parking lot.

She tells Eyewitness News someone used a baby to distract her at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Wilkinson Boulevard in west Charlotte.

The woman says she noticed a group of people were hysterical, saying they'd locked a two-year-old in their car.

She tried to help for awhile but then realized there was nothing she could do and went about her shopping.

When she went to check out of Wal-Mart a few minutes later, she discovered a blank envelope filled with cash had been stolen from her purse.

She returned to the parking lot and found the car with the locked baby inside was gone.

How pathetic can people get? Goodness!

Watch out if you see someone in need. This is the kind of stuff that stops me from trying to help people. Then I always wonder if the person really was in need of help.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Okay, not that I'm not sympathetic, but where was her purse where they were able to get to it??? I would have helped them alright, but only after I had my personals safe and out of reach.
I do feel sorry for her and hope the money lost wasn't much.

 

[Lorix2]

I'd be suspicious of a "group" of people, especially able bodied, who could not get a door unlocked and needed a single woman to help them.

Unfortunatelyl, her instincts didn't tell her differently. People suck these days.

 

[DisneyJen0504]

I'd be suspicious of a "group" of people, especially able bodied, who could not get a door unlocked and needed a single woman to help them.

Unfortunatelyl, her instincts didn't tell her differently. People suck these days.

That is what I was thinking. So unfortunate.

 

[chell]

Maybe it was the fact they were hysterical that made her more willing to help and kept her from thinking about her purse.

By the way, the police WILL come out to unlock the door if a child is inside the vehicle.

 

[HugsForEeyore]

Gosh, unfortunately this reminds me of something I experienced in January in North Carolina. I was driving home from Disney, and I stopped at a rest stop off I-95, I guess somewhere in middle/northern part of the state. It was dark outside. Right when I got out of my car, I see a woman running towards me, crying and crying. She comes up to me, begging for help. Mind you, I am female myself and she was shorter than me, and older. I ask what's wrong, but I am suspicious. She tells me some sob story, where her mom had a heart attack and she needs to go see her in Charlotte, but UNFORTUNATELY she's has no money for gas, and needs $20.00. The second she mentioned money, I wanted OUT OF THERE!!! I told her something like, you got to call someone you know for help, and I have none to spare myself, something like that. She begged some more, but then she ran back to her car and got in the passenger's side. I jumped in my car and BOLTED out of there faster than anything!!!!!!!

That experience scared me, cause who knows what she was really up to? But there were a couple of other cars around at the rest stop, who I bet she approached, too. Now that I think of it, I may have left my purse locked in the car, and I was locking the car when she approached me, as I was literally standing by my driver's door when this happened. Either way, UGH!!! No more dark rest stops for me!!!

 

[chell]

HugsForEeyore I had something similar happen at a rest stop in TN, but during broad daylight. What the woman didn't know was that something about her and her male partner caught my eye when I arrived and I had been watching them. We were the only people she approached the time we were there. If it was that urgent you would have thought she would have been going car to car or something. As I was leaving that rest stop I did call the police to report the situation. Either way, she needed to get out of there.

Her story was that her husband kicked her out of the car there and she had to get back home to her kids. So who was that guy she had just been with?

 

[paigevz]

Well, since she had a blank envelope "filled with cash" and had gone about her shopping, how could she be sure those people weren't truly trying to get a child out of a car and ended up calling the cops to open the car or broke the window themselves, then drove home? She could have lost that envelope at anytime. If her purse was open, it could've fallen out, or an experienced pickpocket could've gotten in it at some other point, or if she let it out of her sight once in trying to get the child out, she could've done it another time, or she could've misplaced the envelope herself.

I always tell my kids when they start screaming that "someone stole my pencil" in class, that if they didn't see anyone take it, they may be mistaken and it may be that they put it somewhere else (and they usually find it).

 

[va32h]

She tried to help for awhile but then realized there was nothing she could do and went about her shopping.

Okay this is the part that really struck me. Would you really just decide there was nothing you could do to help and just go back to your shopping?

That just sounds weird. If you were concerned enough to stop, you'd be concerned enough to tell an employee inside the store, or call the police, or SOMETHING, not just go back to shopping.

And who carries cash in a blank envelope? Maybe the whole story is a scam...tell the local news you've been scammed, get sympathy donations from concerned viewers....

I have a very suspicious nature!