By Jill Colvin
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN — A Bronx teen with expensive taste was caught stealing wallets from baby strollers at a Borders in Columbus Circle and using the stolen credit cards to finance a shopping spree at high-end stores.
The 17-year-old baby-stroller bandit, who DNAinfo is not naming because she is being treated as a juvenile offender, admitted to robbing the carriages of at least four moms over the course of a month, according to police and prosecutors.
She pleaded guilty earlier this month to grand larceny in the fourth degree after using the stolen cards to rack up hefty charges, including one for a $1,500 coat she was wearing when she was arrested, according to court documents. She was released and is expected to be sentenced to probation as part of the terms of her juvenile offender treatment, prosecutors said.
Her lawyer declined to comment.
The spree began on Feb. 4 when a woman noticed her wallet and credit cards were missing after she left her stroller unattended inside the Borders at the upscale shopping mall at 10 Columbus Circle.
The same day, another woman was shopping at the store when she received a phone call notifying her of fraudulent activity on her credit card. She realized that her wallet was gone, too.
Then, on Feb, 11, the teen struck again. This time, a woman inside the store noticed that her wallet was missing. She quickly called to cancel her credit cards, but was informed that she had already received approximately $1,800 in charges.
The teen later admitted to buying some pricey new winter wear, court documents show.
"On February 11, 2011, I was inside of Border Books and took a wallet from a person, I used the credit card to buy the blue coat that I am wearing. It cost around $1,500," she told police, according to court documents.
The final reported incident came on Feb. 22, when yet another woman shopping at the store noticed her wallet and credit cards were gone.
Police reported finding the woman's wallet hidden in the teen's pants and her credit card stashed in her shirt.
"They caught her walking out of Borders," police said.
The girl later admitted to stealing a wallet from a stroller at Borders and using two stolen credit cards to shop at Duane Reade, Dean & Deluca, upscale clothing store Bebe and the pricey Wolford Boutique, which has been described by one Yelp reviewer as the "Sistine Chapel of hosiery."
Police said they were able to track the teen down after capturing her on surveillance cameras making purchases with stolen cards.
The arrest is one of several in recent weeks that police hope will help bring down the grand larceny rate in the Midtown North Precinct, which stretches from 59th Street down to the mid-forties from the west side to Lexington Avenue.
Grand larcenies in the area are currently up nearly 30 percent over the past 28 days versus the same time last year, with 139 incidents versus 107 in the week of March 7 through March 13, according to police statistics.
The crime is also up for the year, with 338 grand larcenies so far versus 298 at this time last year, the data showed. Police said last year's numbers were unusually low.
Most of the larcenies have been happening on the west side, where thieves have been targeting unattended propriety in restaurants, bars and clubs, police said.
Shayna Jacobs contributed reporting.
