Theater Thief Snatches Wallet By Crawling Under Movie Seats

FOLSOM (CBS13) – A crime at a movie theater has a local woman warning others to clutch their purses when they're out.

The incident happened Saturday at a matinee at Century Folsom 14.

Barbara Dobbs and her husband Carl bought movie tickets to see a movie Saturday, but what happened once she got inside the theater would feel more like a horror flick.

"When I looked in my purse I thought, 'Oh gosh my wallet is gone!'" she said.

Under the cover of darkness, a thief was able to open her purse, which was sitting on the seat next to her, and steal her wallet.

"I thought nobody's going to grab my purse off to see when I'm sitting next to it," she said.

Barbara was shocked by the Hollywood-style heist.

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"It was really creepy to me that they could do that and I didn't notice anything," she said.

The thief went straight to Target and started ringing up gift cards in the self-checkout.

"They were getting almost $1,700 in a matter of minutes at Target on gift cards," Barbara said.

The thief then raced over to Home Depot and spent $2,000 in one hour. He may have thought he'd gotten away with the transactions, but his face was caught by surveillance video.

"I feel like I don't want this to happen to somebody else," she said.

Barbara posted her story on Facebook and says at least five other people chimed in saying the same thing happened to them.

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"The manager here said, 'Yeah they do this all the time, they climb under the seats, they get purses and wallets,'" she said.

Barbara is hoping that police are able to catch the thief.

"I think we think because we are in Folsom we are safe, but you're not really safe anywhere, I think I just got to guard your purse no matter where you are," Barbara said.

CBS13 reached out to the theater for comment but did not hear back. If you have any information about this incident or others, you're asked to contact Folsom PD.