Elderly Woman Victim of Snatch-and-Grab Robbery

Updated Thursday, 10 a.m.

As a result of tips, authorities arrested Wendy Ann Gayton, 51, of Cartersville, who is charged with theft by taking in connection with the case.

Original Report

A woman who reported she found a wallet Monday at is suspected of taking it from the purse of an elderly victim as she shopped in the Cartersville store.

The local woman, 88, said she was shopping for umbrellas before 8 p.m. when a woman approached from behind, according to the report. The victim turned around, startling the alleged thief, and said, "Did you take my wallet out of my purse?"

The suspect said, "No. Do you want to look in my purse?"

The older woman did so, but did not spot her wallet in the purse, and the woman suspected in the theft walked away. After the victim notified the jewelry counter clerk that her wallet had been stolen, the suspect approached the Walmart worker to report she had found a wallet.

As the suspect—a woman in her 40s or 50s with shoulder-length brown hair and a suntan—escorted the clerk two aisles away to the wallet, she said, "You know that all they do is take the money out and leave the wallet lay."

That statement didn't sit well with the clerk, who reported she thought it was "odd." The suspect pointed to the victim's black wallet lying on a shelf, which the clerk also thought was "strange" since it was on the fourth shelf from the floor next to a similar wallet.

About $60 in cash was missing.

A deputy who reviewed Walmart surveillance footage of the incident said it shows the suspect—a Caucasian woman wearing a black shirt and dark-colored pants—quickly approach the victim's shopping cart, reach toward it and place an unknown item in her pant's pocket. She walked to the spot the wallet was later found, faced the shelves and walked off.