Unsuspecting shoppers in multiple states fall victim to 'distraction thefts'

A quiet Utah town is the latest locality plagued by "distraction thefts" against unsuspecting shoppers carried out by "interstate crime groups" – transient criminals who travel the country to steal before crossing state lines to strike elsewhere, often affiliated with Romanian and South American crime rings.

Over the past year, St. George has seen 37 such distraction thefts perpetrated at grocery stores, retailers and restaurants. Sgt. Zack Bahlmann told Fox News Digital that the St. George Police Department began encountering the new modus operandi about three years ago. 

"Predominantly, we have these suspects working in groups of two or three entering business establishments," Bahlmann said on Wednesday. "One person will engage – they'll identify a target, they'll look for a person that has a purse or a wallet that's in the shopping cart or readily accessible."

"One of the people will engage the target, ask them a question about the product, something to divert their attention away from that cart," he continued. "Then another person will pull something out of the cart."

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Earlier this month, Colombian nationals Jairo Gavida-Monroy, 37, Andres Fabian Villanueva-Rodriguez, 32, and a third man were finally arrested after a string of such crimes, thanks to a months-long investigation headed by a St. George detective working with state and federal agencies.

On May 18, the pair – both wearing bucket hats – plucked a woman's purse from her shopping cart at a home improvement store, according to surveillance footage reviewed by detectives and recounted in an affidavit reviewed by Fox News Digital.

Minutes later, the victim's bank cards were used to charge $1,138 at a retail store within the same shopping complex. Police said one man had changed and appeared to be wearing a wig when the pair was seen on surveillance footage using the store's self-checkout.

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The woman's cards were used to buy $1,050 in goods from a nearby pharmacy, where the men were seen again on surveillance footage, authorities said. About an hour later, the pair stole a second victim's wallet from her purse at a grocery store on the same street.

Both victims' cards were used in quick succession at a big-box store. The first victim's bank cards had a total of $3,200 charged that day, while the second saw six transactions totaling $6,250 on her cards.

Each time the cards were used, per the affidavit, one man would make the purchases while the other would "hover" around the stores "acting as a lookout."

The three men were captured in Wisconsin months later after the St. George Police Department sent a bulletin to Homeland Security and other surrounding agencies.

Law enforcement agencies across the country – including two county agencies in Southern California, detectives in Illinois and Nebraska and multiple police departments in Wisconsin – shared evidence that painted a clearer picture. A Honda CRV associated with the trio had been traveling in and out of those areas around the time of the thefts that had taken place in each jurisdiction.

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"We have really worked to build our investigative network because of the transient nature of these crimes," Bahlmann said. "They will commit a crime here and then cross state lines. We can track these groups as they're moving and ID people from other agencies."

Villanueva-Rodriguez is now incarcerated in Wisconsin's Kenosha County on a $10,000 bond for pick-pocketing and unauthorized use of an individual's personal identifying information to obtain money, according to the county's jail records. He will be extradited to Utah after he is processed on those charges.

Bahlmann said Villanueva-Rodriguez visited the St. George area at least five times before he was captured.

Gavida-Monroy is now back in Washington County behind bars. He faces two second-degree felony charges, including theft and pattern of unlawful activity, along with seven third-degree felony counts of unlawful acquisition of a financial card, one for each card reportedly stolen. The suspect also faces seven misdemeanor counts of theft.

Another such thief, this one associated with a Romanian crime ring, would "shoulder surf" grocery store customers at self-checkout lines to learn their PINs. Then he would approach his victims with a $20 bill, claiming they had dropped it, and clandestinely steal their wallets or purses.

Although that criminal is "very good at what he does," Bahlmann said he was captured after their department tracked him to Florida with the help of other agencies.

In another instance in St. George that was captured on surveillance footage and shared with Fox News Digital, a Hispanic couple is seen stealing from an elderly shopper at an area grocery store. As a woman distracts the victim, a man can be seen repeatedly reaching into the customer's cart to pilfer her belongings.

"It's pretty astonishing that they're so bold," Bahlmann said.

According to the Utah Attorney General's Office, roughly 30% of cases received by the office's Economic Crimes Task Force involve domestic and international travel theft groups, the majority of which come out of California, that typically victimize residents of Southern Utah, Las Vegas and Boise, Idaho, as they continue toward the Pacific Northwest.

The four most common schemes that these interstate crime groups employ are retail theft, gift cards, fuel theft and card skimmers.

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Jason Chaffetz, a former U.S. representative from Utah, told Fox News Digital that it seemed like these types of criminals are "targeting areas that aren't used to these big-city crimes."

"I think they're banking on the idea that they can prey upon the naivete of a population that isn't used to seeing these things," Chaffetz said.

Based on conversations with local law enforcement, Chaffetz theorized that Utah's Washington County has seen such a high number of these crimes due to its proximity to Las Vegas and the I-15 corridor, which is the main transit route from California into "anywhere north."

"What the criminals don't know is that Utah is pretty tough on crime; it's not California, they're not going to just let you go. They're going to incarcerate you, then they're going to prosecute you. Beware, they think [all of] America is like California, but it's not."

Bahlmann said the St. George Police Department is considering forming a task force to combat interstate crime rings and that the department has been making a concerted effort to get jail time for perpetrators.

"If we could get some jail sentences on them where they're serving several months or years, that seems to be a deterrent to them," he said. "If somebody is from another country and comes here and is able to commit crimes and is able to get a trip back to their home country, if you're getting returned back to your home country then maybe that's not so much of a deterrent as spending time incarcerated."