Purse-snatching spree hits West Island

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

A 46-year-old Kirkland woman had her wallet stolen from her purse while she ate at a Dollard des Ormeaux restaurant last Friday — and to add insult to injury, the woman found out later the thieves paid for their drinks at the restaurant with her credit card.

The woman was eating with her family at Donini Grill on Sources Boulevard in Dollard when two men took the table next to theirs and somehow, one of the men reached under his coat and into her purse, which was hung over the back of her chair, police said.

The woman only noticed her wallet was missing from her purse after her meal, and immediately filed a police report with Station 4 police, Const. Claire Parkinson said.

The woman said she felt victimized and powerless after the suspect allegedly took her wallet, saying the idea of identity theft was disconcerting.

“It’s alarming. My entire life was in the wallet,� she told The Chronicle.

Finding out when she cancelled her cards that the thieves paid for their drinks on her credit card wasn’t much nicer.

“They paid for their drinks on my Visa bill.�

The woman said the incident made her more cognizant of safely stowing her purse during a meal and implored other women to either keep their purses at their feet or place them on the table in plain sight — in order to avoid the fate she suffered.

“Women need to be very careful about their purses and make sure they have them at all times,� she said.

Video surveillance of the restaurant shows two men: one, a younger man about 22 years of age with short black hair and another man, about 28 to 30 years old, also with a similar hairstyle. Parkinson said police have seen the video and are working on the case — and the police have more ammunition in the form of a woman who experienced a similar incident at a coffee shop up the street just prior to the incident at Donini, Parkinson said.

The Kirkland woman was reporting her incident to Station 4 police when she ran into another woman who had just filed a similar complaint — sometime between 7 and 8:30 p.m., the 52-year-old Dorval woman had her purse stolen from the Starbucks coffee house on Sources Boulevard. The purse had been draped over the back of her chair, and when she went to leave the restaurant, it was completely gone.

“No suspects were seen, and nothing was left. The entire purse was stolen,� Parkinson said.

Police did not say if the two incidents are related, but the time frame, closeness of the two locations and similar purse positioning suggest it might be.

Parkinson suggested women take their purses off chairs and keep them in their laps or on the table when dining.

A seemingly unrelated incident also occurred earlier in the day at Winners in Galeries des Sources shopping centre when a 42-year-old Pierrefonds woman was approached by two women in the store and one asked her a question, while the other circled around behind her, Parkinson said. When the woman went to the counter to pay for her purchases, she noticed her wallet was missing from her purse.