Police search for credit card thieves

WEST WHITELAND Twp., Pa. - March 6, 2008 An 83-year-old woman was shopping at the ACME in West Whiteland when someone took a credit card from her purse.

The thieves put a lot of mileage on it.

They bought $1200 worth of gift cards from the Toys R Us across the street.

They then went to a WAWA in King of Prussia and bought another $300 worth of gift cards.

"They buy the gift cards because they can use them themselves or sell them to somebody else," Detective Scott Pezick of the West Whiteland Township Police said.

The thieves were captured on surveillance video.

Police are looking for two women and a man.

They believe they're the same people who lifted credit cards at a supermarket in Berks County.

Typically they look for a woman who leaves her pocketbook in a shopping cart.

They either distract the victim or wait until she walks away to select an item.

This type of crime has become an epidemic in the Philadelphia suburbs, but word appears to be finally getting out, and women who spoke to Action News are becoming more cautious.

The police have found the vehicle the thieves were using. It was rental car from an agency near Philadelphia.

Now, they're hoping someone will help them identify the people in the pictures.