Shoppers beware: 'Distraction thefts' on the rise at grocery stores

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — A grandmother thinks three men who distracted her and robbed her at a shopping center are the same men who did it to another elderly woman in another county.

The victim is urging older shoppers to be on the lookout.

"I never dreamed for anybody to do this to me," Mauricette Martin, 81, said.

Martin is still upset that two men were able to distract her while a third man went into her purse and stole her debit card and other important documents.

"I'm always careful. I never leave my pocketbook in the buggy," Martin said.

She said the incident happened in February when she finished shopping at the Publix on Mount Zion Road. When she stepped outside and was waiting for a ride, two men approached her.

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"They were looking around to get somebody and I was the sucker," she said.

The men said they wanted to know about restaurants in the area. As Martin talked to them, she says a third man went into her pocketbook and stole a small change purse.

"I had my pocketbook like this. And I had laid it on the buggy like this and he reached in and got it," Martin said.

The men bought gas with her debit card and tried to withdraw money from the bank, but the bank had shut down the account by then.

Four months later, Martin saw a Channel 2 Action News report about another elderly woman who was distracted and robbed in a Publix in Johns Creek in June.

Martin says the suspects in that case are the same men who robbed her. She's warning others to be careful because she believes they will strike again.

"They prey on old people because we're vulnerable. We don't think anybody’s gonna do it to you," Martin said.

Martin says Johns Creek police and Clayton County police are sharing notes on her case.

Cox Media Group