Women with gold teeth pull off distraction theft in Sudbury

A local business was recently the victim of theft in which distraction techniques were deployed to commit the scam, Greater Sudbury Police said Friday.

In the incident, which is still under investigation, two females went the counter and made a small purchase, police said in a release.

“One of the women asked for change for large Canadian currency bills and handed over and requested $20s from the cashier,” the release said. “After getting the $20s, the woman then asked if she could exchange the $20s for even smaller denomination. The cashier told her that this was not possible and at this point this female asked for her large bills back.”

The cashier then returned the $50s and $100s to the suspect, the suspect gave back the bundle of $20s and the cashier put the money directly in the till. At this point, the two women left the store.

“At the end of the business day, discrepancies were noticed between the amount in the till and the store’s sale receipts,” police said. “A review of the surveillance camera clearly shows both suspects taking to the clerk, and one of them removing a number of $20s from the bundle before making the final exchange, to complete the theft while using distracting methods.”

Police say the suspects are Caucasian, between ages 20-30, “with some gold teeth.” Anyone with information is asked to call police or Crime Stoppers.

In light of this incident, police encourage residents to practice the following prevention tips:
- If someone is looking to exchange a large amount of cash, direct them to the nearest financial institution;

- When there is an exchange, especially involving a large amount of money, ask a co-worker to be a witness to protect yourself and the customer;

- For every exchange, the money should be re-counted in front of the customer.