EVIDENCE—Suspects are seen on camera fleeing the Westlake Village T.J. Maxx store July 9 with armfuls of expensive handbags. Purse thieves also hit the Cross Creek shopping center in Malibu on July 12. Anybody with info is asked to call L.A. Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS (8477). Courtesy LASD
Oak Park
A thief tried to steal a truck July 11 in the 68 block of North Smoketree Avenue. The culprit used an object to break into the vehicle and damage its steering column in an attempt to take it. Total damage was about $1,000.
Westlake Village
Thieves entered the Village T.J. Maxx store on Thousand Oaks Boulevard around 2 p.m. on July 9, smashed a display counter with a hammer, and stole numerous expensive handbags. The culprits ran out of the store and left in a blue Dodge Challenger sedan with no license plates. A similar robbery occurred July 12 when hooded thieves stormed a high-end shop at Cross Creek’s Malibu Lumber Yard retail center and made off with multiple designer handbags. The Malibu haul reportedly could be as high as half-a-million dollars.
A thief stole a purse from a customer’s shopping cart at T.J. Maxx on July 2. The victim said she was in the store for around an hour starting at 12:30 p.m. After realizing her purse was missing, she got an alert on her cellphone that someone tried to make a $500 purchase using one of her credit cards at the Best Buy store in Thousand Oaks. Store management was not immediately able to say whether security cameras picked up anything related to the incident. In addition to the purse, which was valued at $20, the victim lost $350 cash, a driver’s license, health insurance card, and various credit cards.