Deer Park Woman Says Thieves Followed Her Home From Mall, Smashed Car Window & Stole New Designer Handbag
DEER PARK, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Police on Long Island are looking for thieves who followed a woman home from a mall then broke into her car and stole her new high-end designer handbag.
The woman believes she was targeted, CBS2's Carolyn Gusoff reported Monday.
When Bushra Shakeel was gifted a generous credit at Saks at the Walt Whitman Mall, she splurged on a Louis Vuitton bag.
Shakeel now believes she was being watched as she exited the mall. She saw a woman video tape her.
"I just look at her, give her a look actually, and she put her camera in her pocket," Shakeel said.
Shakeel and her daughter then drove 20 minutes home to Deer Park, leaving the high-end bag locked in the car while they went inside to tend to two family members with autism.
Video shows a van pulled up behind them. Seconds later, the car window is shattered.
"He comes into the back of the car and very quickly and effortlessly just breaks open the back window, takes out the Louis Vuitton bag," Badar Zaman, Shakeel's son, said.
"Of course they were following me from the mall. They've been looking, some easy target. I was alone," Shakeel said.
It's not the first time thieves set their sights on these expensive designer handbags. In January, Nassau police said numerous subjects walked into a Louis Vuitton store in Manhasset and walked out with 10 bags worth $75,000.
But following a customer home? The Shakeels said that's next level.
"They came to our house to do it. You never see that. You'd think it would just happen at the store ," daughter Maheen Shakeel said.
"I was scared, I was terrified, I was crying," Shakeel said.
This victim's advise: Be aware while shopping.
"Who is following you, who is watching you," Shakeel said. "Never go shopping alone, this kind of shopping."
She's asking people to take a good look a the gold Honda Odyssey and surveillance images of the two suspects. You can see the thief calmly walk off with the handbag he swiped.
"I am angry, of course, when you're not feeling any security around you," she said. "Since this incident happened, I barely even go out. I don't even want to go to the mall to shop."
Suffolk County Crime Stoppers offers a cash reward for information.
