Louisville, KY (WDRB) An unsuspecting elderly woman gets robbed at Kroger in broad daylight. She thought a good Samaritan was helping her out. But instead, she became a victim.
Penny Hayden is still upset about what happened to her in the Kroger parking lot at Westport Road and Hurstbourne Parkway. On Monday around noon, she had just withdrawn money from the bank inside.
She says, "I went to the car and was unloading my groceries and this gentleman came up and asked if he could help and I said well 'Thank you,' that's a good Samaritan. But I never looked up and when I did look up, I said 'Oh you're not from Kroger' because I thought he was one of the Kroger employees."
Hayden says the man told her he thought she needed help. She later realized he would help himself to her wallet that was on the child seat area of the cart.
She says, "I had turned to put the eggs in the backseat of the car and when I turned around, my wallet was gone and it as just a matter of seconds."
She even confronted the man that she describes as white, between 5-foot-9 and six feet tall with an unshaven face, wearing a ball cap and black shirt.
Hayden says, "I said my wallet is gone and he says I don't know anything about your wallet. He says all I'm doing is unloading your grocery cart. He started walking away."
She yelled for someone to stop him, but at this normally busy Kroger, she says at the time, there was only one elderly man in the parking lot.
Hayden says, "I tried to chase him and by the time I got to Subway there at the end of the building, there was no sign of him at all."
Tim McGurk, a Kroger spokesman issued this statement, "We regret that this isolated incident occurred at one of our stores and are working closely with the Louisville Metro Police Department to help find the person responsible. Kroger's top priority is to make sure that our stores are safe places to shop and to work. Our stores have sophisticated surveillance equipment and employ uniformed and undercover security officers."
Kroger says it did have a security person on duty. That person was working inside at the time.
Hayden says, "There is a lot of senior citizens out there and it just bothers me to think that not just me, but the young women with babies in the shopping cart -- it can happen to anyone at any time."
Hayden says her wallet also had her cell phone inside, along with her driver's license and medical cards.
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