‘Be aware’: Robbery of 79-year-old woman at KC Trader Joe’s among handful of incidents
Shopping buzzed along at Kansas City’s Ward Parkway Shopping Center in the lead-up to Christmas, just days after a 79-year-old woman was robbed in a parking lot there last week.
Patrons zipped about heading into stores in the busy shopping center as a security truck looped through parking lots on a chilly Wednesday afternoon.
After shopping at Trader Joe’s, near where the robbery occurred, Angie Courtney said she generally feels safe in the area, but said people should pay attention to what’s happening around them. With more shoppers out around the holidays, people can be more vulnerable to those looking for targets, she said.
“My personal opinion is you should always be aware of your surroundings, whether it’s morning, noon or night, but we can’t be scared to live,” she said. “We have to be willing to go out and do what’s necessary.”
Along with the robbery last week, police have recorded a handful of incidents in the vicinity of the mall over the last month, according to the Kansas City Police Department’s crime map. They include shoplifting reports, a robbery, assaults, a stolen vehicle.
A representative for mall management didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Lisa Drackert, who has an office near the shopping center, said she’s in the area regularly and feels safe.
“From the consumer standpoint, I think my opinion is the same,” she said. “I would still feel safe as long as I’m visiting those in a reasonable timeframe.”
“From my perspective, I don’t think it’s neighborhood-specific,” she said. “I used to own a storefront retail office in the Brookside neighborhood and the same public safety concerns were happening there over the past two years, store break-ins and car break-ins.”
79-year-old woman robbed outside Trader Joe’s
Three people were arrested following the robbery of a 79-year-old woman in the parking lot outside the Trader Joe’s in the shopping center Dec. 12, according to court documents.
The three were arrested in Lee’s Summit shortly after the robbery with credit cards and a social security card belonging to the woman, police said.
Prosecutors charged two Kansas City men, Jeremy L. Madden Jr., 18, and Omarion Deonte Swift, 20, with second-degree robbery and fraudulent use of a credit/debit device in Jackson County Circuit Court. A juvenile was also charged with second-degree robbery and fraudulent use of a credit device, said Scott Lauck, a spokesman for Jackson County Circuit Court, in an email to The Star.
Police were called to the shopping center for the robbery around 7:30 p.m. Dec. 12.
The victim said she had been waiting as her granddaughter returned a shopping cart when she was hit. Initially, she thought she was struck by a car, but then realized someone was stealing her purse.
The woman was bruised on her head after a struggle, but didn’t want medical care at the scene because she didn’t want her granddaughters to have to experience the ambulance and the trauma of the incident, a detective wrote in a report. The woman was checked over and cleared.
The woman reported the value of what was taken in her purse to be around $2,230, according to court documents.
The three suspects police linked to the incident traveled to the Target store at 1850 Northwest Chipman Road in Lee’s Summit and were contacted by a store loss prevention employee about a possible fraudulent use of a card there. Police were directed to a Camry after the group had used a card belonging to the woman who was robbed earlier, a detective wrote in a report.
Police said video showed the three buying and attempting to buy items in the electronics section of the store before they got in the Camry.
Both men told police the juvenile had committed the robbery, according to court documents.
To stay safe, law enforcement advises people to present an alert appearance, keep track of their surroundings while out in public, park in well-lit, visible areas, stay near other people and secure purses or wallets to make them difficult to steal.
