Missoula Police Need Help Identifying Suspected Purse Thief

Missoula Police have been looking for a purse thief since summer, but are now closer than ever to finding the culprit.

"Her purse had been stolen either from her shopping cart, or from her vehicle while she had been shopping at a local grocery store on June 25," said Missoula Police Public Information Officer Travis Welsh. "She then found that her account balance was not accurate and that several of her checks had been written around town and were still being written [in July]."

Detectives were able to trace the credit card use, and now are looking for a suspect, but need some help from the public.

"We managed to contact some of those businesses and have some pretty good surveillance video of a young woman driving a passenger car, but we don't know if it is her vehicle or not. We have not yet confirmed her identity."

Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Detective Shawn Manraksa at (406) 552-6288 or Five Valley Crime Stoppers at (406) 721-4444.