WATERVILLE, Maine — Surveillance images on Facebook and an anonymous tip led to a boyfriend and girlfriend being charged with felony theft for snatching a woman’s purse at Walmart last week, police said Thursday.
Heather Folsom, 23, and Brandon Brasher, 24, both of Pittsfield are facing up to five years in prison if convicted, Waterville Deputy Chief Charles Rumsey said.
The victim was shopping in the store’s dairy department on Nov. 6, and shortly after she set her purse down, it was gone, Rumsey said.
Shortly after the purse was snatched, a woman left the dairy area of the store and met up with a male suspect, Rumsey said. The female then left the store while the man made purchases with an EBT card.
Rumsey said the victim did not have an EBT card in her purse.
The suspects were captured on store surveillance, and fled the scene in a green Pontiac sedan, Rumsey said.
Waterville police posted the photos on the department’s Facebook page in hopes of identifying the culprits, and an anonymous tip to Officer Dennis Picard, who was the head investigator, led police to Folsom and Brasher.
The caller contacted Waterville police Wednesday night after seeing the images on the social networking site, Rumsey said.
Picard attempted to contact Folsom on Wednesday night but was unsuccessful, according to Rumsey, but she called the officer Thursday morning, and she and Brasher went to the Waterville police station for an interview.
Picard was able to successfully identify the pair as the suspects in the surveillance images, and at the conclusion of the interview, Folsom and Brasher were charged with theft but not arrested.
Rumsey said the charge was elevated to a felony because the value of the contents in the purse exceeded $1,000. He said the purse has not been recovered.
Folsom and Brasher are scheduled to appear in Kennebec County Superior Court on Jan. 29.
Lost my wallet or it was also stolen in Walmart in northern Maine last spring with a good deal of cash also. It would have been much nicer if person had taken money and returned wallet because it is so hard to replace all cards, insurance, license, etc. I hope these thugs are caught because karma will catch them anyway. Best wishes to the victim and good luck doing all the running around for replacements.
Stolen is a better word
Back in the thirties they had Bonnie and Clyde. Today, we have Bimbo and Clod. Can we get a picture of her with a joint in her lips and holding a paint ball gun?
Neck tattoos
I think I got the wrong face tattoo, no one will hire me. i think I will try to get disability.
Sweeet.
Nice angle.
I wish I would have thought of that before I drove
the drill through my beer drinking hand.
Doooohh!
Purse snatching is the act of ripping a purse off a person’s arm, or out of her hands. taking a purse from a shopping cart doesn;t qualify as “snatching”
It doesn’t really matter how the purse was stolen. What they did was wrong. I hope the contents of this woman’s purse are recovered. It’s probably not such a bad idea to not carry around a lot of cash. It’s a lot easier to moniter how/where a debit/credit card is used than cash – plus a lot of banks have insurance for when stuff like this happens.
Break the law – no EBT card for you. At least that’s the way it should be. Pull them from the EBT program (if they had legitimately qualified to be part of it in the first place).
If this was an honest working couple they would have brought the purse to the customer service booth…
Wait a minute, somebody shopping WalMart with over $1000. of value in a purse? Get outta here! LOL
I was at the Brewer Walmart and had my purse in the child seat attached to the seatbelt. I thought that would prevent theft…no, as I reached in to get milk, the woman who was near me with a cart, took my cart and left her empty one. I found her going up the isle, obviously putting her single item into a full cart with a strange purse. I grabbed the cart back and went straight to security. I was told by security that Bangor Police had just called to let them know this woman had been over earlier to the Bangor Walmart pulling the same thing. Who was she? A druggie – and she thought it better to take the whole cart then mess with the seat belt…would take too long. I keep my purse on my shoulder now and let other unsuspecting women know my experience when I see them doing what I used to do. If someone tries to get the purse off my arm…they better run real fast and zig-zag.