Man faces jail for stealing purse from Abington shopper

NORRISTOWN >> A Philadelphia man was sent to jail after he admitted to stealing the purse of a woman shopping at an Abington store.

Michael L. McClary, 58, of the 1100 block of West Indiana Avenue, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½ to 23 months in the county jail, to be followed by five years’ probation, after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of theft by unlawful taking in connection with the January 2018 incident at the Burlington Coat Factory store on Old York Pike in Abington.

Judge Steven T. O’Neill, who accepted a plea agreement in the case, said McClary can be paroled early but only if it’s to a forensic intensive recovery program.

The sentence means McClary will be under court supervision for seven years.

Court documents indicate Abington police responded to the store on Jan. 10 to investigate a report of a stolen purse.

“The victim stated she was shopping in the store and left her purse briefly unattended in a shopping cart. The victim returned to find that her purse was missing from the cart. The victim’s purse was later found in the women’s bathroom of the store,” Abington Police Officer Robert Hill Jr. alleged in the criminal complaint. “Most of the contents of the purse had been removed including jewelry, cash, credit cards and an Apple iPhone.”

The victim later discovered that one of her credit cards was used to make a successful purchase with a cellular telephone company and that there were four additional unsuccessful attempts to use the card at businesses in Philadelphia, according to the arrest affidavit.

Investigators reviewed store video surveillance footage that recorded the theft and security video from a gas station in Philadelphia where the victim’s stolen credit card was used. Police subsequently developed McClary as a suspect as the person responsible for the theft of the purse.