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Hunt after woman’s bank cards stolen
Tuesday 9th March 2010, 8:40AM GMT.
A woman’s bank cards were snatched as she loaded her shopping into a car in a copycat theft at a Telford retail park.
Police believe the same gang could be responsible for the series of thefts which have taken place in car parks across the region.
Sunday’s theft follows a spate of recent incidents where shoppers have been distracted while they packed shopping into their vehicles.
In the latest theft, several hundred pounds were taken from the victim’s bank account before she even realised her cards were missing.
The money disappeared from the victim’s bank account after her cards were stolen from her car parked outside the Tesco supermarket on Wrekin Retail Park in Arleston.
The victim was approached by a woman at about midday who asked directions and said she was travelling from Liverpool to Corby.
The unknown woman is described as being white, approximately 5ft 7in tall and as speaking with a foreign accent. She had short blonde hair and was wearing a light beige jacket.
She opened a map and placed it on a nearby vehicle and, while the victim was distracted, it appears that another person opened her car door and stole bank cards from her handbag.
Chris Ammonds, of Telford police, said: “Having given the woman directions, the victim returned to her car and made her way home. It was not until yesterday morning that she discovered her bank cards were missing and, when she contacted her bank, she found that her cards had been used at least three times and that several hundred pounds had been taken from her account.”
Mr Ammonds added that there had been several similar thefts since January.
He said: “It’s worth noting that these tactics are becoming more common. The thieves tend to track the victims from the supermarket back to their cars.
“We are investigating CCTV images from the store and from any cashpoints where the cards may have been used.”
By Brett Gibbons
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Surely these should be caught by now? They’re robbing people in public carparks that are covered by numerous CCTV cameras and must’ve been caught on camera either on foot or in their own car?
And how did they manage to withdraw money without the PIN?
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Speaking with a foreign accent. So this is how people from European countries make a living over here…don’t we just love the government!!!!
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They must of been behind her in the shop and watched for her pin number!! It does makes you wonder why cctv hasnt picked something up by now.
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What if these people are not know to police?
Simple answer:
Be wary of who is around you when using your card, protect your pin….
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And the moral of this story is, next time someone asks for your help, tell them to **** off.
Ok, maybe not, but hope everyone takes heed and keeps their purse, wallet etc with them at all times. I was at Tesco this morning filling the car up. Saw the guy in front get his credit card out of his wallet, fling the wallet on the front seat and go & pay. Of course, he never locked his car, and had I been the sort to do so, could quite easily have made off with his wallet in seconds.
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Flagfen,
What a nasty racist generalisation you make in your comment.
The vast majority of Eastern Europeans here are here to work and earn money honestly. As the recent TV documentary ‘The Day the Immigrants Left’ showed, there are many indigenous Brits who could take a lead from their example.
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I believe if you go to a bank or building society counter with the appropriate card they will issue funds without a PIN. I checked with my bank ,HSBC, and they assured me they wouldn’t do this, but I know of people whose Building Society cards have been stolen and used in this way. If everyone pressurises the banks and BSs to stop doing this, it will cut off one more route for thieves.
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The reason that they’re not prevented from robbing by CCTV is, paradoxically, because the CCTV operators and police put so much faith in the cameras, thinking that they’ll stop people doing these things because of their presence, that they’re not proactive in PREVENTING the crime from happening in the first place.
In the days of old, the police were judged by how little crime occurred in their patch, (prevention). Now, they appear to be judged by how quickly they solve crimes, (resolution). So, in that strange, Government-led way, they’re rewarded for letting crime happen and then trying to solve it, rather than protecting us from it in the first place.
If police officers were paid according to how little crime happened in their area, rates would soon start to fall, especially if they were docked pay for each crime committed.
Because they’re paid according to clear-up rate, they tend to go for the nice soft targets, (middle-class, compliant citizens are the best), rather than the truly bad, because in this way, they can appear to be earning their pay packets.
TIP FOR TESCO SECURITY > Whilst standing at your console looking as if you’re working, use the cameras to watch the check-out queues for people who seem to be hanging around for no good reason. Anyone on the “paid” side of the queue for longer than a minute or two and not associated with anyone actually waiting to pay should raise suspicion. Then, if you identify someone with that profile, communicate that to the retail park CCTV operators and suggest that they follow that person for a while after they leave your store.
(No, southshrops, I am sceptical that any bank would hand money over to someone with a card without either a PIN or a signature. But I do agree with other observers about “shoulder-surfing”. The criminals will simply memorise the 4 figure PIN as someone breezily enters it without hiding the keypad and then try and distract that person in the car park to steal the card. Once taken, they race to an ATM asap and draw out as much cash as possible. HIDE YOUR PIN when keying it in – the state cannot think for, and look after, you all the time, regardless of what they want you to believe!) If you memorize the path of your fingers, you should be able to enter your PIN with hand over whole pad and not even looking, in the same way as you can probably dial a familiar phone number without looking.
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re: Rodney Nosnail
Obviously as you know it all you could run the country as well while you’re at it!
“Because they’re paid according to clear-up rate, they tend to go for the nice soft targets”
Obviously don’t know it all, you are well off the mark on this statement….
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