HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Within 30 seconds, a man and woman made off with a $1200 vintage Louis Vuitton purse in front of nearly a dozen people in Henrico’s West End, and it was all captured on camera.
It happened Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 inside the upscale women’s clothing shop, Monkee’s of Richmond, on Huguenot Road.
“They seemed like professionals when it comes to doing this sort of thing,” Beatrice Bonner, who works at the store, said.
Security camera footage shows the woman open her dress and tuck the purse inside.
“Just got goose bumps watching it again,” Katie Butz, who also works at the store and her mom owns it, said after watching the security video again.
“You can see they look back to make sure no one sees them,” Bronner said.
Bronner and Butz were working, along with two others, when the theft occurred, and said they did not notice a thing.
“We’re pretty sure they were scouting us out and waiting for a time when we were really busy,” Bronner said.
They realized the next day that the vintage purse was missing.
Bronner and Butz said they did notice the couple sitting on a bench outside the store for quite a while before entering the shop and stealing the purse.
“They definitely looked conspicuous when we first spotted them on the bench,” Butz said.
Still, the girls said the pair picked the perfect moment to move in.
“I was ringing people out and we saw them come in but we had six other people in the store,” Bronner said.
Now, they are warning other business owners and customers to be vigilant.
“It’s impossible to watch everyone every second and they did it so fast and it really is freaky to see that,” Bronner said.
Bronner and Butz said Henrico police told them the couple may have been wearing a disguise.
Anyone with information on this crime is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 804-780-1000.