SAN DIEGO (CBS 8) — By simply paying with the Walmart app on her phone, one brazen thief who brought a baby made off with $125 worth of groceries paid for by an unsuspecting victim.
"She never presented my card, she just swiped or scanned her smart phone at the self-checkout," said the victim whose name is Jamie. "It blew my mind and one of the things she bought was a Thomas the Train shirt."
Jamie says on April 1 at 11 a.m. the purchase overdrafted her account, so she called and her bank, Navy Federal, flagged her debit card.
"I just felt sad and for her… you used someone else's money to buy him clothes," said Jamie.
The woman did not just buy clothing at the Santee Walmart. Jamie got the receipt of the thief's shopping spree which included waffles, bleach cleaner, gloves, plates, tank tops and other household items.
It was shocking to Jamie that all the suspect needed to pay at the self-checkout stand was her phone.
"Once it's totaled and she selects 'ready to pay' she tells it it is the Walmart pay and swipes her smart phone instead of the card," Jamie said.
The thief also used cash at one point to pay for the rest of her groceries and she didn't stop there.
"Since she had the victim's information, she tried to make online purchases but luckily since the victim's bank called her so quickly, she was able to put a stop on the account and all those charges were denied," said Sgt. William Amavisca of the San Diego County Sheriff's Investigations Unit.
Investigators say using a child as an accomplice has become all too common for some criminals.
"We've had them admit to us that they'll take their children because it will provide them more cover," said Amavisca.
With the suspect still on the run, Jamie constantly stares at the surveillance photo.
"Every day I look at it… and you want to say you recognize them," she said.
Worry sets in of how much of her identity may have been stolen.
"On the app, you also have to put in your billing address for your card, so this person knows my billing address, which means she knows more about me than I thought she knew," Jamie said.
