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Elderly Woman Has Message For Crooks

ARVADA, Colo. (CBS4) - An 80-year-old woman targeted by pick pockets in Arvada has a message for the crooks – "one day there will be a judgment."

Arvada police came within minutes of catching the crooks at a Target store. Lucette Shupe was at a grocery store nearby when she allowed herself to be distracted. One man was talking to her while another helped himself to her purse left alone in her shopping cart.

Arvada police say a man seen in surveillance video wearing a baseball cap with a white trim on the brim victimized Shupe by asking her a question inside the grocery store last month. As she helped one young man, another helped himself to her credit cards.

"My credit cards were right there, so he just opened it obviously and closed it back (up)," Shupe said.

She learned she'd been robbed at the checkout counter.

"So I open my (she gasps), I said, 'Those guys took my credit cards,' " Shupe said.

Her husband, Pastor Randy Shupe, wasted no time and called the credit card companies.

"He said they were at the store right at that very minute. He said they had already rung up $4,000. They tried another swipe on it and put another $1,000 on it," Randy Shupe said.

The smaller amount was at a Walgreens. Inside a nearby Target surveillance video shows one thief reaching for gift cards on the rack and then joining a female accomplice.

The cashier accepted the stolen credit cards with the store manager saying the fake female's signature matched the store receipt.

Police missed the suspects by minutes.

"'You know, maybe I did not see you but God saw you and God sees everything, so I would warn them -- one day there will be a judgment," Shupe said.

Shupe says the two men in their 20s had Middle Eastern accents. One was 6 feet tall and the other was about 5-foot-10. The woman was slender and about 5-foot-7 with long straight black hair. Anyone with information is asked to call the police.

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