Video shows man stealing wallet woman, 81, left on store counter

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Surveillance video shows a calculating crook swiping a wallet that belonged to an 81-year-old Orlando woman and then pretending to help look for it.

"It makes me sad," said Carolina Horne to Eyewitness news Anchor Jorge Estevez as she watched the video of the man take her mother's wallet.

In the video you can see Horne's mother step up to the cashier to pay. Then you can see the woman set down her wallet and begin to pull out her credit card. She then places some bags in her cart and swipes her card. She then takes her receipt and grabs one last bag and prepares to leave the Walmart on Colonial Drive in east Orange County.

"Twenty-two years she has been buying groceries there," said Horne.

The video shows the next shopper in line quickly paying and walking right by the wallet left on the counter.

The next person in line didn't ignore the wallet.

"Not only did he know he was going to take the wallet, but jackpot, (there were also) credit cards," said Horne.

The video shows how it takes the man just seconds to grab the wallet off the counter as he moves out of the cashier's view while the cashier bags his items.

You can see the suspect look around several times, and in less than 30 seconds the woman returns.

In the video, the man is seen talking with the woman. Investigators said that is when she asked the man about her wallet.

"He was helping her look for the wallet or pretending too. It was in his pocket the whole time," said Horne.

In the end, the suspect didn't return the wallet; instead he walked right out of the store.

"It is a criminal looking for another opportunity to happen and maybe we can prevent that," said Horne.

Investigators said it took just 16 minutes for the thief to use the credit cards at a nearby convenience store and charge more than $100 on them.

WFTV