Shocking moment 'thief' uses sneaky plastic bag trick to 'steal customer's purse at grocery store checkout'

A WOMAN has been caught on camera allegedly stealing a shopper's wallet at a grocery store checkout area using a plastic bag.

The suspected theft happened at WinCo Foods in Layton, Utah, outside Salt Lake City.

In a video posted by the Layton Police Department, the woman is seen walking over to a lady putting groceries in her cart at the end of a checkout lane.

Surrounded by people buying groceries, the alleged thief then picks up a paper shopping bag and hands it to the lady before grabbing a plastic shopping bag.

She then opens the shopping bag and appears to quickly swipe the lady's wallet, which is inside her purse sitting in her cart, before putting it into the plastic bag.

The suspect then simply walks away with the wallet in the bag.

She was wearing sunglasses that cover her face in the video, but the police department was able to get pictures of her face at some other time she was in the store, seemingly on the day of the theft since she was wearing the same outfit.

It is unclear when the theft happened but the police department posted the photos of the thief on July 30 and the video was posted on Friday.

Customers are not the only ones who get robbed at grocery stores.

As retail crime spikes across the country, shoplifters are getting caught on camera stealing merchandise at the self-checkout lanes.

One woman was caught on surveillance footage using the skip scan trick to steal from Dollar General twice in one shopping trip.

The skip scan trick is when a customer does not ring up every item in their basket before leaving the store.

A store manager at the Dollar General in Pineville, Louisiana, was going through the self-checkout camera footage from July 22 when she allegedly saw a woman with cleaning supplies, according to the Rapides Parish Sheriff's Office.

The suspected thief allegedly rang up some products, but also put un-scanned items in Dollar General bags and left the store, failing to pay for everything that she took off the shelves.

About 10 minutes later, the same woman allegedly came back to the self-checkout section and put four laundry baskets in her shopping cart.

Again, she reportedly used the skip scan trick, ringing up two baskets, but leaving the store without paying for the others.

In total, the suspected thief stole about $100 worth of products, local news station KALB reports.