Librarians targeted for id theft

April 10, 2008 (WPVI) -- Libraries are considered sanctuaries from the outside world. Quiet and safe, but that sense of security has now been shattered.

Police in Whitemarsh Township and other towns in the area say a gang of thieves is targeting, of all people, librarians.

Video surveillance shows the thieves in action. A woman walks out of a Lowe's store with two large power tools. She's not a contractor. Police say she's a thief. The credit card she used had been stolen less than an hour earlier from a librarian at the Chester County library in Exton.

The thieves then went on a 16-hundred dollar shopping spree.

The same thing happened at the Jeanes Library in WhitemarshTownship.

The librarian there says she had her pocketbook under her desk when someone took the wallet out.

Police believe it's the same woman and her accomplices who ran up 13-hundred dollars worth of charges.

The thieves were also caught on tape entering and leaving the Upper Dublin Library.

They were then seen at a Target store buying 26-hundred dollars worth of high-end electronics.

Police thank alert store security personnel at the Lowe's who became suspicious when the woman bought two of the same expensive power tools.

That's why he kept the camera on her as she left the store and loaded them into a Ford Explorer with the help of an accomplice. Another man was behind the wheel.

The video didn't pick up a clear shot of the license tag, but police believe it has a decorative plate on the front -- a shiny, mirror-like background with a raised Ford logo.

This kind of theft often happens at supermarkets, but why are they now targeting librarians? Police are not sure.

If you think you recognize the alleged thieves, call the police in West Whiteland, Upper Dublin or Whitemarsh.

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local/state, david henry

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