VISTA, Calif. - Authorities are searching for two women accused in a scheme in which they walked out of a Vista convenience store with $1,000 in cash and $2,000 in money orders.
San Diego County Sheriff's investigators say it looked like the women were pros who had probably taken money from store clerks before.
On Dec. 14, the two women walked into a 7-Eleven on Vista Way and asked a store clerk about buying four money orders worth $500 each. The clerk counted the money, placing it in piles of $500 apiece. As she counted the last stack of money, the video shows the older woman reaching across the counter and pulling three piles of the cash back to her side. Two stacks of money appear to go in her left hand as she returns the third stack with her right.
The distracted clerk gave the women $2,000 worth of money orders and they left the store. The older woman still holding $1,000 in cash she'd removed from the counter.
Within three hours, the money orders were spent in Los Angeles to buy a used car, detectives say.
There is now a $1,000 reward for information that leads to their arrests.
One woman is described as Middle Eastern, about 45 years old. She's about 5'1" and weighs approximately 190 pounds.
Her companion appeared to be a younger Middle Eastern woman with red hair pulled back into a ponytail. She was described as being 5'2" and weighs 120 pounds.
If you have information about the women, you are urged to call the Vista station of the San Diego County Sheriff's Department at 760-940-4551.
