SOUTH FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — Criminals are using decoys to rip off unsuspecting people in South Fulton County.
“It’s a new twist to an old crime,” Fairburn police Sgt. Mario Jones said.
The crime was caught on tape when three people threw a handbag out the window of a silver Lexus and waited for their victim to take notice.
“When he picked it up to take it inside the store here. That's when the crooks moved in,” said Jones.
Surveillance video captured the 54-year-old man step away from his car to take the purse inside. Within seconds, a man jumps out the back of the Lexus and into the victim’s car, stealing a wallet and iPhone.
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Harold Byrd told us he rents his basement apartment to the victim in the video.
“He thought he was being a good Samaritan by taking this handbag to a store clerk, thinking someone had dropped it at the gas station off Senoia Road. But the store’s surveillance video shows something different,” Byrd said.
The Lexus was also stolen and police believe the handbag tossed from the window was taken the exact same way just an hour before, Jones said.
“They got his pocketbook, all his information, my address on it. I worry about that. I’m 82 years old,” Byrd said.
Jones told us this could become a new trend.
Byrd told us he won’t rest easy until the men get caught.
Anyone who may know the men are urged to call police.