A True Horror Story

Now that I'm rethinking about La Madeleine, I feel I should tell you about some upsetting recent occurrences there.  Forewarned is forearmed!

This past weekend, we were at our local La Madeleine soaking up some French roast coffee and general deliciousness.  I happened to look up and saw a really disturbed customer.  She was frantically pawing through her purse and wasn't finding what she was looking for.

"My wallet.  It's gone!"

Turns out, the couple that had sat at the table over from them had stolen the lady's wallet.  The man/scum kept repeatedly backing his chair up against the lady's chair, knocking into her.  The lady didn't think anything of it aside from, "My purse is zipped," and "Gee, this guy is an ***hole."

After several minutes of this, the woman/scum got up from the table they'd shared without ordering anything.  A minute later, so did the man/scum.  And that was that.  He'd been unzipping her bag and searching for her wallet while bumping her.

Now, yesterday, another lady was stolen from.  This time it was just the woman/scum at the table and she reached back behind her and into the victim's purse.  Then she calmly got up and left.  One of the other customers saw her do this and told the management.  The manager (or one of the employees) ran after the woman/scum as she was leaving and heard her yell to a man/scum in an idling car, "Go!  Go!  Let's go!"

The police came for both occurrences.  Apparently this couple/scummies does this all the time.  They manage to worm their way into a purse and then they high-tail it out to the mall.  The police officer said that the last time they did it, they charged over $1,000 at Nordstrom's.

I cannot imagine the feelings of these two poor ladies.  Such a violation!  I really hope the Howard County police catch these scum.  It doesn't seem like it would take much effort to set up a "sting" operation - just set up a lone female with a cup of coffee, a pastry, and a book and let her sit there with her purse wide open.  Do it for a full week and they're bound to catch them - or am I being naive?

One thing I don't understand is why La Madeleine doesn't have any surveillance cameras!  I guess they covered their butts by posting a "Please Watch Your Valuables" sign.  You'd think they'd want to protect their customers and their wallets so they can continue to spend money there.  Guess they just don't care.