Three Dallas businesses have reported wallet thefts in a rash of brazen larcenies that occurred last month, with one victim suggesting at least two of the incidents could be related.
The first incident occurred on April 12 in City Council Member Paul Ridley’s District 14. Two women entered Apex Dance & Performing Arts near the corner of Greenville Avenue and East Mockingbird Lane. Video footage shows one of the women going through a fanny pack before leaving with the dance studio’s owner’s wallet.
Two other incidents were reported to the police 10 days later, both on April 22. One of the thefts was also committed in District 14 at Redenta’s Garden Shop on Skillman Street.
A woman entered the business while it was busy that Saturday and allegedly stole an employee’s wallet. Not long after, the employee received a fraud notification charge for $700 worth of goods from Walmart, the Lakewood/East Dallas Advocate reported.
Video footage of the incident obtained by Fox 4 appears to show the woman — who was wearing a black mask, white shirt, white sandals, and brown pants — going into the office in the back of the store and taking the wallet before leaving through a side door.
In addition to the garden store, another dance studio was targeted that same day, this time in City Council Member Jesse Moreno’s District 2. It was also captured by a security camera.
Two women entered the Gocha and Shorena Center of Ballroom Dance in Oak Lawn. Co-owner Shorena Gachechiladze said that one of the women approached her and asked about lessons while the other woman allegedly walked back into the office area and stole Gachechiladze’s wallet.
“I got so upset with myself. How did I do this? I trusted, I was so welcoming and nice. Look what they did to me,” Gachechiladze told Fox 4.
Josephine Phelan, a student at the dance center, told Fox 4 she bumped into the woman who took the wallet.
“I walked out of the bathroom and one of the girls were sitting there. It surprised me and I asked her if she was trying to use the bathroom,” Phelan said.
Later in the day, Gachechiladze received a fraud alert for a purchase from Walmart totaling $505. She subsequently became aware that her wallet was missing.
The owner of Redenta’s Garden Shop, Dawna Schmidt, said that someone in her family realized that the suspects could be the same when she remembered that the woman who allegedly stole the employee’s wallet out of Schmidt’s store was also wearing a black mask, white shirt, white sandals, and brown pants — the same as one of the women on video who allegedly snagged the wallet at Gocha and Shorena Center of Dance on the same day.
“She watched it and recognized her immediately as being the same woman we had on camera in the exact same clothing,” Schmidt told Fox 4.
Police are currently investigating all three incidents.
As far as larceny and theft offenses go, District 2 logged the second most (1,310) in the city, coming in slightly behind City Council Member Paul Ridley’s District 14 (1,333), per the City of Dallas Open Data crime analytics dashboard. However, there has also been a recent spike in thefts in North Dallas, as previously reported in The Dallas Express.
