Police have jailed an elderly woman in Florida nicknamed the “hugging bandit” who pretended to be thick as thieves with strangers so she could allegedly pickpocket them during embraces.
Kathy Stevens, 65, faces more than a dozen charges from the Clearwater Police Department and others in Tampa Bay, Florida, after she committed at least seven credit card thefts by pretending to know her victims, most of whom were elderly men, and swiping their cards as she embraced them, authorities said.
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Stevens spent almost $1,000 on one credit card she stole last October, according to the sheriff’s office.
“She is a suspect in multiple credit card thefts where she approaches elderly men and acts like she knows them,” CPD wrote in a November Facebook post. “On some occasions, she hugs them while stealing credit cards, which are then used elsewhere.”
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Stevens awaits trial on $113,750 bail, according to court records. She is being held at the Pinellas County Jail.
