No charges after stolen money is returned, with an apology

PONTIAC, Mich. (AP) - A Chicago woman whose purse was stolen at a Detroit-area grocery store has opted not to press charges after the culprit returned money swiped from the purse and apologized, police said.

The 80-year-old woman's purse was recently stolen from a Kroger in Oakland County's Independence Township, after she left it on a window ledge while waiting for her daughter, who she has been visiting.

Surveillance footage released to the media showed a woman entering the store's bathroom with the purse and leaving without it. Store employees found it in the bathroom, but $100 was missing, the Detroit Free Press reported.

After several tips from the public were called in to police identifying the thief, police said the 63-year-old woman who had taken the money returned the cash Wednesday and wrote an apology.

Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said the victim chose not to press charges because she 'œsimply wanted to move on after the culprit apologized and returned the stolen money."

But he lamented that the woman who took the money 'œwon't face full responsibility for her intentional act." Bouchard said the woman told officers she has a prior retail fraud conviction in 2019 in Troy and was also arrested for retail fraud 25 years ago.