WAKE FOREST, N.C. (WNCN) — A warning from a woman who lost something precious to her: be careful when you’re out shopping. What appears to be an innocent request could be a scheme to steal.
Cathy Perone is still shaken up. Thursday, she was shopping at a Wegmans in Wake Forest, North Carolina when she says a man asked for help picking out a greeting card.
“He’s pretending that he can’t speak English,” she recounted to Nexstar’s WNCN. “I tried to help him pick out a card.”
Perone said the man was appreciative, thanked her, and walked away. Then she noticed a woman standing by her cart.
“The woman actually stared at me, and it gave me such an eerie feeling,” Perone recalled. “Then she walked away, and something told me, ‘Check in your bag.'”
She realized her wallet was gone.
Her daughter-in-law, Christina Perone, said within about 15 minutes, thousands of dollars of charges or attempted charges showed up on Cathy’s credit cards.
“Sometimes criminals look at it as if there’s no victim because the credit card companies will always just take care of it,” she noted. But, replacing lost IDs, credit cards, and insurance cards is painstaking, not to mention the emotional toll these crimes take. “Especially for senior citizens, who sometimes don’t have the means to get around or have the ability to get around.”
“There is a real victim,” Christina added.
Most of all, Cathy wants her wallet back. The brown and black Brighton wallet with a silver heart emblem was a gift from her husband, who died a year ago. She says the wallet was stolen on the anniversary of his burial.
“He bought me that wallet,” she said tearfully. “It’s hard.”
She said Wegmans employees helped her look for it, but it was nowhere to be found.
“I had all my pictures in there of us and my son and when they got married,” Cathy added. “It’s gone.”
Still, the Perones say they won’t let this experience stop them from helping others
“I would never say don’t help people, if that guy really needed help,” said Christina, but she says they’ll be even more cautious from now on.
Wake Forest Police say the case is under investigation.
