
ANSONIA — Police are warning people to be aware of their surroundings after someone stole purses from two cars Monday.
In a Facebook post, police pointed out the purses were stolen as their owners pumped gas.
“Anyone pumping gas should lock their doors and be aware of their surroundings, and anyone hanging around” gas stations, police said.
The alert was posted at 2:30 p.m. Police said the incidents had happened within the last hour. The crimes happened at a Shell Station on Great Hill Road (on the Seymour border) and the busy Stop & Shop gas station on Division Street.
“A suspect vehicle is a gray Kia Sorrento, possibly stolen out of Stratford (Monday),” Ansonia police said.
In a subsequent Facebook post, Seymour First Selectwoman Annmarie Drugonis noted a similar incident happened in neighboring Oxford.
“I was just informed that there was a purse snatching in Oxford at the Mobil Station at the bottom of Mountain Road,” the post stated.
Drugonis also wrote that a car was stolen from a gas station in Shelton. Click here to read her post.
“The Seymour police are aware, and they are working with other Valley agencies,” she said. ​“Please be aware of your surroundings and lock your car doors while pumping gas and loading your groceries.”
Earlier this month a woman in the parking lot of the Shop Rite off Pershing Drive in Derby reported that someone in a car reached out and stole her purse while she was loading groceries in her vehicle.
On Dec. 28 a woman in the parking lot of the Ansonia Stop & Shop on Division Street reported that a man approached her and ripped her purse from her arms.