It's far from being a new trick used in order to steal a handbag but it's one that still often occurs.

Take the case of a woman in the car park of a supermarket. She was loading her boot with her shopping when a woman with a South-American accent spoke from behind her.

The woman, who was accompanied by a man leaning on his shopping trolley (i.e., looking like shoppers themselves) pointed to coins on the ground next to the victim, saying that she must have dropped them.

So the victim bent down to gather then up and when she stood up again, her handbag, which had been in the floor well of the driver’s seat, had disappeared, along with the couple.

It’s a simple distraction trick but in this case, an expensive one for the victim as she had 1,500 euros (divided between two envelopes) in her handbag, together with her mobile phone.

The woman went straight to the Policía Nacional to report the theft. In the meantime, relatives of the victim had activated the ‘Find My Phone’ app to track where the stolen phone was, which was in motion in the thieves’ car in the Guadalmar area of the city. When the police got there, the thieves had long since moved on and the phone was no longer trackable.

This all happened several months ago and the police had been investigating the theft since then but have finally identified the suspects, thanks to the description given by the victim: the South-American woman had blonde hair with orange tints, for example, together with descriptions given by victims in similar cases of theft.

The suspects live in Madrid and hired a van to drive to Málaga, where they were operating.

(News: City & Metropolitan Area, Costa Tropical, Malaga, Andalucia – Photo: BHG.Com)

Keywords: Handbag, Car Park, Shopping, Distracted, Coins on the Ground, Mobile Phone, Envelopes with Cash