Police: Pickpockets targeting Panera Bread restaurants

Posted: Monday, October 15, 2012 

A typical meal at Panera Bread doesn’t cost nearly $3,000.

But that is what one local customer at the popular chain restaurant ended up paying after her wallet was stolen in August at the restaurant in Lower Southampton.

The story the victim told police about how her wallet was snatched sounds familiar, not only to Lower Southampton police but also law enforcement from the Philadelphia and New Jersey regions who have experienced Panera pickpockets.

One local detective said he’s been told that the thieves are professionals targeting Panera restaurants. But a spokeswoman for the St. Louis company said say its corporate office and franchisee, which operates bakery-cafes in Bucks and surrounding counties, are not aware of any organized rings targeting its customers.

Dawn Johnson 

Since November, pickpockets have hit customers at the Panera in the 200 block of Street Road at least five times, according to published reports.

Middletown police said one report of a wallet theft at the Panera Bread in Langhorne Square had been reported so far this year and that no suspects have been identified. Bensalem police said they don’t have a problem with pickpockets at the Panera on the 2600 block of Street Road near Parx Casino. The Courier Times was unsuccessful in reaching police in Warrington and Willow Grove, where other Panera Bread restaurants are located.

Across the Delaware River in Burlington County, N.J., a number of pickpocket incidents have been reported at Panera Bread. A location on Centerton Road in Mount Laurel has been hit five times since November, according to police reports.

What victims frequently report is that the chairs they were occupying and on which their purses were hanging were bumped by someone — usually a woman. Victims also report wallets stolen out of unattended purses.

In at least two Lower Southampton cases, the suspects moved a table toward a victim’s chair until it was against it, then reached into the targeted person’s purse and took the wallet, said Detective Eric Landamia said.

The next thing the customer knows, thousands of dollars in charges appear on their missing credit or debit cards within hours after they were stolen, police said.

The pickpockets almost never make a purchase at the restaurant. Rather the suspect sits at a table as if waiting for someone, Landamia said. In some cases, the thieves work in pairs.

Lower Southampton police last month issued an arrest warrant for Dawn Tamika Johnson, 40, of Philadelphia, in connection with the August theft, but arrests are rare. Most of the time the suspects escape in rental cars registered under phony names, according to police.

Johnson is charged with 38 felonies including 16 counts of identity theft and 13 counts of access device fraud in the Aug. 14 theft.

Johnson allegedly bumped her chair into the victim’s chair several times while the two were seated at neighboring tables at the Panera Bread, according to a probable cause affidavit. The woman later discovered her wallet, containing four credit cards, was missing.

Dawn Johnson

The woman then found out that 16 transactions had been attempted using her stolen credit or debit cards -– all on Aug. 14 during a two-hour window, according to police. Seven transactions totaling $2,781 went through, according to court documents. The transactions were made at Lowe’s, Target, Finish Line, Macy’s and Walmart in Bensalem and Philadelphia.

Police identified Johnson as a suspect after viewing surveillance footage from some of the stores where the victim’s credit cards were used.

The recent theft mirrors a pattern also seen at the Lower Southampton restaurant.

Police said a wallet theft attempt was foiled Feb. 28 after the suspect was caught in the act by the victim’s son. The suspect had dropped her purse near the victim’s and, while retrieving it, reached in the other woman’s purse and took out a wallet. After she was confronted, the suspect returned the wallet and left the restaurant.

The next day, a customer of the same restaurant reported that her wallet had been stolen by two women and her stolen credit cards used at four stores, for a total of $2,477 in purchases, police said.

Four days later, pickpockets hit the same restaurant, stealing a wallet from a purse hanging on the back of a chair and running up $3,500 in unauthorized charges, police said.

Those theft cases remain unsolved, police said.

“Apparently it’s a full time job for most people,” Landamia added. “You almost have to get them in the act.”

JJo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181; email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia