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DA: Woman used low-tech method to get into local schools and a hospital to steal purses and wallets: A smile and a wave

A Roxbury woman has pleaded guilty to 33 credit-card fraud and larcency charges related to the money and credit cards she stole from employees at three schools in Dorchester, Roxbury and Somerville and Massachusetts General Hospital, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Leilani Chambers-Ray, who formerly lived in Cambridge, was sentenced to 4 to 5 years in state prison, the DA's office reports.

According to the DA's office, Chambers-Ray, only two weeks out of prison for a similar offense, gained access to the Trotter School in Roxbury, the Holland School in Dorchester, the Argenziano School in Somerville and Mass. General between June, 2016 and January, 2017 and then went into employee areas and took whatever wallets and purses she could find. She made one foray into each of the schools, but found Mass. General particularly attractive - making four trips there.

Chambers-Ray, 44, used a simple technique: She'd wait outside for somebody to enter, wave at them and then "piggyback" inside behind them, the DA's office reports, adding she put on a lanyard of the type a hospital worker might wear at Mass. General. She stole from a total of 12 employees and used their credit cards to make purchase at a T station, a liquor store and a variety of retailers, the DA's office says:

The evidence would have proved that Chambers-Ray made more than 60 unauthorized purchases on the victims’ credit cards totaling $5,952.43 and stole additional items from the victims, including a commuter rail pass, house keys, cash, and gift cards.

A security camera at the Somerville school captured Chambers-Ray waving to a visitor entering the school and then following them into the school’s entrance, which would otherwise have been locked. During an interview with Boston Police, Chambers-Ray made statements indicating that she had used this method of piggybacking school visitors in prior offenses, prosecutors said. Security camera footage from Massachusetts General Hospital captured Chambers-Ray wearing a lanyard as she walked through the hospital during one incident, and footage on another date depicted her waving to and interacting with hospital staff while holding a pair of gray gloves matching those reported stolen by an employee that same day.

The DA's office reports that Chambers-Ray made her first larceny venture just two weeks after getting released from a four-year prison term for stealing and then using credit cards belonging to employees at a Lynn school in 2013.

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Comments

That woman needs to be stopped in her tracks before she ruins more people's lives. She needs to go back to prison for awhile.

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security hack.

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But the public flavor of the moment is to view drug dealing and hard core drug use as "non violent" despite wrecking families and lives.

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Because the War on Drugs definitely solved all drug problems forever.

Right.

Uh huh.

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LYNN WOMAN ACCUSED OF STEALING FROM TEACHERS

LYNN – A judge set $10,000 cash bail for a city woman with an extensive larceny record who police said admitted to visiting Cobbett Elementary School, stealing debit and credit cards from two teachers.Meanwhile, police reported recovering dozens of pocketbooks and wallets and other possible stolen merchandise, and are looking for other victims.

https://www.itemlive.com/2013/03/29/lynn-woman-accused-of-stealing-from-...

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Are there any photos of this woman?

This sounds remarkably like the way my friend's wallet got stolen on a college campus a few years ago.

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