Bill S. Levy, 71, of St. Louis, was charged with stealing a purse and everything in it from Sam’s Club in Maplewood on June 27 at 10:17 a.m. according to police and court records.
An Apple iPhone 6S (valued at $1,100), $400 in cash and five credit cards were taken. The purse itself was valued at $200 and the wallet was worth $300, according to the report.
Security video from the Sam’s Club parking lot showed an older man wearing a white baseball cap and a floral-print shirt taking the purse from the shopping cart and then driving away in a black Lincoln sedan. The phone was tracked to a Lee’s Chicken restaurant in St. Louis city. Maplewood officers found the suspect there wearing a floral-print shirt inside a black Lincoln MKZ two hours after the purse was taken.
Police found the purse on the passenger seat inside the car. Levy confessed to taking it. He claimed he had intended to return it to the victim but he did not return the purse to Sam’s Club or tell employees that he had found it — despite going inside to make a purchase after finding the purse.
Levy said he had found identification inside the purse with a Crestwood address and had been deciding whither to return the purse to the victim directly or take it to the Crestwood police station.