Woman targeted by distraction theft in Charlottetown parking lot warns others

Michele Dollar was just trying to help someone out, but it appears the woman asking her for directions to the hospital was really after her wallet.

Dollar had been shopping at a Charlottetown grocery store with her mother and was just getting ready to head home.

"I had unloaded the groceries, unlocked the car for her, and I took the cart back to the cart thing and this woman came up to me," said Dollar.

"She started to say she needed to get to a hospital and was asking for directions. I'm trying to tell her and think of the best way to send her and then all of the sudden she just goes, 'Thank you,' and takes off. And I thought, well, that was weird."

It wasn't until she got home that she realized her wallet was gone.

Her phone pinged and when she took it out of her purse she noticed her wallet wasn't there. And what was worse, the phone alert was a message from her bank about a low balance on her account. Hundreds of dollars were missing.

She believes someone was able to read her PIN when she entered it at the grocery store, and then targeted her in the parking lot.

'It seemed very organized'

She wears her purse as a backpack because of shoulder problems, a practice she said she will probably change.

"I assume she was just able to take the wallet out of my backpack while she was distracting me," said Dollar.

Thinking back, she said someone else was distracting her mother at the same time.

"It seemed very organized when you look back at how it happened," she said.

"I can't be 100 per cent sure that's when they got it, but it just seems to me, when you're looking back, that's when it happened."

She called the bank, who were very helpful in freezing her accounts, and filed a police report.

Charlottetown Police say they've received two similar complaints.

They say the incidents occurred about a week apart in the same parking lot, but there is nothing else at this time to indicate they're connected.

Dollar said she is reluctant to put herself in the spotlight, but she is hopeful that sharing her story may help prevent someone else from becoming a victim.