Thieves targeting shoppers in Williamson County using distraction method

WILLIAMSON COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — Thieves in Williamson County are targeting shoppers and they’re working in pairs to trick their victims. News 2 spoke with one woman who said she didn’t realize what had happened until it was too late.

Lynn Winfrey told News 2 she was shopping at the T.J. Maxx and HomeGoods store in Brentwood on Sunday, Oct. 13 when she was stopped in an aisle.

“I was only in there maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes tops,” Winfrey recalled. “A woman approached me and started asking me questions in broken English — how to make a coat out of a throw blanket — so I was having trouble understanding what she was wanting, so that took a minute or two, and I guess I had my purse in my basket. Of course, my back was to my purse, and then when I got out to the car, I got a text message from my credit card company.”

Winfrey’s purse was still in the cart, but her wallet was gone. Within 20 minutes of talking to the woman, Winfrey said thieves used the stolen cards and cash in in Franklin, including $4,000 charged at Dillard’s and $500 at Sunglass Hut. They also allegedly racked up money on a Macy’s card, in addition to taking $240 in cash.

“We live in White House, Tennessee, which we don’t have a lot of shopping, so we go to Brentwood and Franklin, where the better stores are, and you feel safer there,” Winfrey told News 2. “I didn’t expect this to happen there at all, but unfortunately, it did, and it just makes me angry that they do that to people.”

Winfrey isn’t the only one who’s been targeted. In a post on X , formerly known as Twitter, the Franklin Police Department said it is currently investigating several distraction thefts at local grocery stores where credit cards have been stolen and then used at other businesses shortly afterward.

Authorities said they’re noticing a team dynamic in these thefts, where one person engages in a conversation with a shopper, distracting them enough that they turn away from their shopping cart, and then someone else swipes the wallet from the shopper’s purse.

The next time you go shopping, police urge you to stay aware; make sure your purse stays closed; and know what’s in your wallet, like the number of credit cards, so you don’t fall victim to a distraction theft. If your cards are stolen, you should cancel or deactivate them as quickly as possible.

“It takes time out of your life that somebody has done this instead of…getting an honest job and working for a living instead of preying on other people,” said Winfrey.

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