I got conned. So, I have been busy because of this. Things will get back to normal soon. In the meantime, be aware of this, to protect yourself

I was going to wait to let you know about this until it was concluded, but I decided that I shouldn’t waste time so you can be aware of these two people and how they operate with distracted theft. I was at Fortino’s in Lawrence Square Sunday, 10 Mar 24. At the salad bar, a woman hit her head on the glass portion as she moved in towards it. It actually was quite hard. Her partner laughed loudly. Myself and another woman expressed concern for her. Afterwards I went to the cash register to pay for my groceries. I saw the same woman in the aisle where I was, looking towards the salad bar. She then moved in beside me at the register to load her items. As I paid for my groceries, I heard the cashier ask her if she needed a bag. She said she did and I offered her one of mine, which she rejected. I had one more stop at the flower shop, before heading out to my car which was parked on the aisle directly outside Fortino’s main entrance/exit. Normally, I keep my purse with me but this time I placed it in the driver’s passenger door. As I placed my groceries in the back of the SUV, the same woman approached me from behind, with a set of cat treats I had bought for my own pet. She had it with a receipt in her hand and told me she thought it was mine. I did not find this surprising because it does happen at times that I find something extra which isn’t mine or vice versa. I asked her if she had paid for it and she said no after glancing at her receipt. She said she had two cats and never tried it so I gave her half. I asked her how her head was and she said that she was more worried about her dog than her head. She was now moving slightly away from behind me. She took out her phone to show me a picture of her dog, a white poodle with a what looked like a slash of blood along one side. I told her she should take her dog to emergency. She said she wasn’t from this country and asked where to take the dog. When I told her to an animal hospital, she asked if it was a human hospital. She stated this a few times and began to scroll down her phone to determine where she was exactly. I moved away from her and went to my car and began to drive away. As I moved my purse, I noticed that it was light. The wallet was missing with all credit cards, gift cards and cash. It appears that these two went directly to Walmart at Lawrence and Keele to do some shopping. Both appear to be Eastern European (Russian), Caucasian, with darker skin. Male is about six feet, heavy build and female is about 5’6’’ with botox heavy lips. This is what makes her stand out. Both have dark hair and eyes, wearing dark clothing. They are anywhere from 25-35 years of age. When I went to my bank, I was informed that at his last bank there were six customers reporting being scammed a day. I do love my city. This is my home. I think that the majority of people living here are wonderful, but we do have too much crime. I have been aware of distraction theft and normally ignore and walk by people approaching me in parking lots, saying no thank you. I was also approached at a gym where I was suspicious and let it be known. However, this is a situation where a person fakes injury, takes a piece of your grocery and then approaches you from behind when you are loading groceries. She returns your item and then depicts concern not for herself but her pet. While she is distracting you, her partner is stealing from you. I wasn’t familiar with this, so just in case you aren’t, you are now.