90-year-old great-grandmother victim of distraction scheme at Bossier City Sam’s Club
90-year-old great-grandmother
By BILL LUNN
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BOSSIER CITY, Louisiana (KTBS) — Ninety-year-old Jacqueline Johnston was a bit put out that no one thought to give her favorite perfume, Red Door, for Christmas. A few days after the holiday, the grandmother of eight and great-grandmother of 13 decided to go to Sam’s Club on Airline Drive to buy it herself.
After visiting the perfume counter, she remembered she also needed coffee. So, Johnston went to the coffee aisle across the store. But when she got there, something strange happened. There was a woman in front of her with a bag of coffee.
“And she started punching the bag,” Johnston said.
She also said the woman was making strange screaming noises.
“And I’m looking at her, and said, ‘Something must be wrong,’ and I shrugged my shoulders. And I started to turn back again, and she grabbed my shoulder. She was distracting me,” Johnston said.
Johnston was distracted long enough that the man who was with that woman got behind her, reached into her purse and took her wallet. Johnston didn’t realize it at the time.
She figured it out when she went to check out and had no way to pay. She says they took her credit cards, her social security card, Medicare card, driver’s license, but fortunately not a lot of cash.
Johnston says she was hysterical.
“I would like the whole world to know what happened to me,” Johnston said. “I lost my social security card, that’s where I’m waiting for the axe to fall. I have not suffered at all other than mental anguish and sleepless nights. It has just affected me like nothing else.”
She called the experience “violating” and says she regrets that she didn’t have her purse zipped.
Johnston says she drove right to the Bossier City Police Department to report what happened.
KTBS-3 news spoke with Bossier City Police Lieutenant Bart Cavanaugh late Tuesday. Investigators reviewed surveillance video of the incident and confirm Johnston’s description of what happened. But police said the suspects involved were wearing masks and other clothing to hide their identities. Cavanaugh said the suspects used Mrs. Johnston’s credit cards at Sam’s, Best Buy, and Target, racking up $3,200 in charges. Cavanaugh said detectives have contacted Johnston at least twice so far, but at this point there is no new information to share. Lt. Cavanaugh also added that they have had no recent reports of similar schemes involving seniors in Bossier City.
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