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Winter Garden Distraction Thief Always Wears Medical Scrubs

Thursday, February 21, 2008 – updated: 6:08 pm EST February 21, 2008

Police in Winter Garden are looking for a thief wearing an unusual outfit. Each time the crook targets someone, she's been wearing medical scrubs. Police said the bandit has been stealing people's wallets and then using their credit cards.

For police, the images are very clear, showing three females using a stolen credit card to buy thousands in electronics. But less than an hour earlier, they were posing as church-going customers with the best of intentions

While employees at Trophies Unlimited helped their customers, Tammy Carson's wallet disappeared from her desk. At least twice in Winter Garden, and more times in Ocoee, groups have entered stores to distract employees while at the same time raiding purses.

In both Winter Garden cases, the same woman was involved and caught on tape wearing scrubs as if she were a nurse or doctor.

"As soon as they leave the store, within 30 minutes they were up in the Wal-Mart in Ocoee purchasing items," said Det. James Capeletti, Winter Garden Police Department.

The Winter Garden cases are similar to a December theft in Altamonte Springs, scrubs and all. Police have plenty of images of a number of women involved in Ocoee. A woman even brought her children along for the heist.

Video from the Ocoee Wal-Mart shows one of the teams shopping for a PlayStation 3 with Tammy Carson's credit card, a card she didn't know was missing until hours after the distraction theft occurred.

"They're good at what they do, they're professional, and they had maybe two seconds, because we were really watching them and they were still able to," Carson said.

The problem is bad enough already in Winter Garden that all downtown businesses have been warned with a flyer including images of the thieves. The problem is that the bandits have likely already moved on to another town.

Ocoee police said they'll release details on even more distraction theft cases Friday, along with images of even more suspects they need help finding.

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