Another owner of Dallas dance studio reports having wallet stolen

DALLAS - Dallas police are investigating whether two wallet thefts, both at dance studios, may be connected.

Surveillance video from April 12 shows a pair of young women rifling through a fanny pack and taking the wallet inside.

One of them was wearing a mask.

Surveillance from April 22 shows a very similar crime happening, as a young woman in a mask stole a wallet in a dance studio.

The owner of Apex Dance on Mockingbird reached out to FOX 4 after seeing our first report earlier this week.

She said the thieves acted like they were interested in taking classes, only to steal her wallet.

That wallet contained not only her personal credit cards, but a credit card for her church.

"When one of the parents saw it, she said, ‘Oh my gosh Donna, these are the same girls that came to your studio,’" Donna Murray recalled.

Murray, who is the owner of Apex Dance and Performing Arts Studio, is referring to the story that aired on FOX 4 on Monday about two thieves who stole a purse at an Oak Lawn dance studio last week.

She said the same thing happened to her.

"This is where they grab my fanny pack and put it in between them," she described in the video.

On April 12, Murray said the wallet thieves walked into her Dallas dance studio.

"One was wearing a mask. The darker skinned one with the longer straight hair was not," she said.

Video shows them sitting down briefly, then grabbing a fanny pack belonging to Murray.

They sifted through it, and then Murray came out to talk to them.

"I’m being super nice to them and telling them the classes we offer, that they can try a class for free if they wanted. They said OK," she recalled.

Murray said she got a text and walked away.

While she was gone, one of the girls took her wallet out of the fanny pack.

"I come back again as I see them leaving, do they want to try a class and they said we are going to get some friends of ours," Murray said.

Minutes later, Murray started to get fraud alerts on her phone. 

"I don’t think it was 30 minutes. They were at the neighborhood Walmart and I was getting notifications on my phone. It was for $505 and I said no," she said.

The thieves attempted to use several credit cards, including one that belongs to her church.

At least one transaction for $505 went through on her American Express card.

On April 22, Shorena Gachechiladze, the owner of GS Ballroom Center of Dance, got a fraud alert for the same amount after two masked women came into her studio.

She didn’t think anything of it at first, until she went to the grocery store after work and saw her wallet was missing.

In her case, the thieves also asked about dance classes and one snuck away pretending to go to the bathroom.

"It’s happening around and I think they are targeting small businesses, happy and welcoming businesses," Gachechiladze said.

Dallas police could not yet say whether both crimes are connected, but said it’s part of the investigation. 

For Murray, she’s surprised at the distraction tactic the thieves appear to be using.

"For them to speak to me in my face after I know they had it at that time, and be so brazen about it, and I was so helpful and nice, it makes me a little upset and wants them caught so they don’t keep doing it to other people," Murray said.

It’s not known at this time if there are more victims as a result of this theft scheme. 

Dallas police said this is an ongoing investigation.