Thieves steal from 86-year-old woman at Oregon Fred Meyer
By Spencer Thomas
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HAPPY VALLEY, Oregon (KPTV) — Two thieves targeted an 86-year-old woman at a local grocery store, stealing her wallet, in what seems to be an organized crime.
On Wednesday, March 23, Dorothy Lackey took a trip to a Happy Valley Fred Meyer with hopes to find chocolate Easter eggs for her family, then the unexpected happened.
“I noticed a man kind of behind me, he had been behind me in another aisle too and he had reached to get something off the shelf for me before. I don’t usually accept help, but he reached before I could say anything and he handed me what I was reaching for,” says Lackey.
Lackey said she thanked him, moved on to the next aisle and that’s when she realized that same man, and another were following her, then suddenly, he approached her.
“He said, ‘oh you have paint all over you, can I wipe it off?’ and I had felt nothing but I really think that he perhaps swished some paint on me and then he asked me if I had paper to wipe it and I said, ‘oh I’ll just change my clothes when I get home,’ I don’t usually accept help I just thank people,” says Lackey.
But the man was persistent that he help her, asking repeatedly, “He asked again so I pulled out a paper napkin and I took the jacket off and, in that time, when I was turning around or doing whatever I was distracted,” says Lackey.
Looking back, she believes that was the moment the man reached into her purse and grabbed her wallet, leaving mysterious blue paint all over her white sweater.
As she approached the register to pay for her goods, that’s when she noticed, “I looked and looked and I said I think my wallet have been stolen,” says Lackey.
Just shortly after, charges amounting to over $2,000 showed up on Lackey’s credit card statements.
“You know people are always very kind to me and helpful to me and now I feel like I can’t trust people, it kind of erased my feeling for trust,” says Lackey.
Lackey’s daughter, April Frezza, was in shock by what had happened to her mother stating, “I just think it’s evil and it’s egregious and senseless. They really didn’t have to do the paint to get the wallet, I just want people to know, and I don’t want anything to happen to anyone else.”
The Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office is working to find the two men who did this, if you have any information, please call them immediately.
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