Police produce
Woman’s wallet was stolen from shopping cart
Shopper’s wallet stolen; police buy her groceries.
Marie Morgan lost her wallet during a grocery store theft but gained the friendship of two Boynton Beach police officers who helped her after the crime.
Morgan, 91, reunited Wednesday with officers Janelle Jumelles and Evan Esteves, who bought the groceries shewas unable to pay for after her wallet was stolen. They also later gave her a $60 Publix gift card.
“They went out of their way to be extra helpful,” Morgan said about the officers, who also aided her peace of mind by making sure the credit card in her walle twas canceled.
The theft happened Saturday afternoon as Morgan was shopping at the Publix supermarket at 133N. Congress Ave.
Surveillance video shows Morgan with her shopping cart in the produce section, near the garlic, as a man starts speaking to her. As thatwas happening, a second man brings his shopping cart parallel to hers and is seen going through her purse, which she had placed in the child seat of the basket.
Morgan realized she had been victimized only while trying to pay for her groceries, police said.
“Shewas in so much disbelief,” said Jumelles, a rookie Boynton Beach officer whowas hired in January.
Acouple of hours after Morgan’s ordeal, Jumelles and Esteves, a Boynton Beach officer since 2012, gave her the gift card.
“I felt bad, I didn’t want to take it,” Morgan said. “I felt sorry for them because they work so hard. They insisted, and I couldn’t get over that.”
Esteves says he and Jumelles were happy to help.
“You can talk to her for five minutes, and you’ll instantly be touched by her,” he said.
The two people who carried out the theft remain at large.