The individual accused of stealing a Gucci handbag belonging to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, which held $3,000 in cash along with other personal items, was apprehended on Saturday in Washington, D.C., as per reports.
According to the New York Post, the Metropolitan Police Department and the U.S. Secret Service collaborated to detain the suspect. Authorities are still trying to locate a second individual involved in the incident.
Both suspects are residing in the U.S. unlawfully, and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been brought in to assist in the investigation, according to Interim U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin, as stated in NBC 4. Martin emphasized that there is no evidence suggesting that Noem was specifically targeted due to her position at DHS.
The suspect in custody is scheduled to appear in court early this week, according to the New York Post.
Authorities are still searching for a second suspect. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The bag was on the floor at her table when it was stolen, according to a complaint filed with local police.
Security footage captured a white man in a N95 surgical mask, dark pants and a baseball cap grabbing the bag before leaving the restaurant.
The suspect glanced around the restaurant before snatching the bag, covering it with his jacket and running out of the establishment, sources who viewed the footage told the New York Post.
“It was kind of shocking, actually, because it was sitting right by my feet. I actually felt my purse, he hooked it with his foot and drug it a few steps away and dropped a coat over it and took it,” Noem told podcaster Vince Coglianese on the “VINCE Show.”
Noem was with her family on Easter Sunday at The Capital Burger in Washington, D.C., when the suspect nabbed her luxury bag. (Ken Cedeno/UPI/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I felt it, but I thought it was my grandkids kicking me in the legs. But it was very professionally done, and it tells that this happens all the time to people and that they live in communities where this is a danger and it reaffirms why I am here,” she added. “My job is to make sure that I do everything, every day I can to make our communities safer and President Trump recognizes that families shouldn’t have to live with any kind of violence in their lives.”
Just days before Noem’s bag was stolen, another woman eating with her own family at a nearby eatery had her purse nabbed in a similar incident.
