State Police: $500 Stolen From Elderly Woman's Missing Purse
HEMPFIELD TOWNSHIP (KDKA) -- Authorities are investigating after someone stole hundreds of dollars from an elderly woman in Westmoreland County after she accidentally left her purse in a cart at Walmart.
Jamie McHugh says someone took $500 from her mom's misplaced purse.
"She's a widow, she's 86½, lives by herself and she was just so excited about her money. She's just so sad," said McHugh. "It was actually her paycheck. She worked several days in a two-week period and she just cashed it that morning."
This story starts when 86-year-old Helen Joseph was at the Walmart in Hempfield Township. She just returned her cart.
"She set her purse down, didn't remove the purse from the cart where she set it down and drove away," said McHugh.
Surveillance video shows a woman who appears to find the purse.
"Once she goes into the vestibule area of the store, she walks to the side and starts to rummage through the purse," says Trooper Steve Limani, of the Pennsylvania State Police. "It appears she may have taken something from the purse, then turns into customer service. You can see her going through the purse, then take something from the purse."
When Joseph went to pick up her purse from the store, her daughter says she discovered all the money was gone.
"They said they had her purse. She went to pick it up, and all the money was gone. She felt very victimized and very devastated," said McHugh.
State police say they'd like to figure out who this woman is and talk to her.
"We need to find out exactly what she was doing when she walked into that vestibule area and started rummaging through that purse," said Trooper Limani.
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