One person has been arrested in the theft of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s purse and a second suspect is being sought, a federal prosecutor said Sunday.
Both suspects are in the U.S. illegally, U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Ed Martin told NBC News. The alleged thieves apparently did not know who they were robbing, he said.
“There is no indication it was because of that,” Martin told NBC News. “It was frankly, it was a nice-looking purse.”
The person’s alleged undocumented status has gotten Immigration and Customs Enforcement on the case as well, Martin added. Authorities had not identified the person as of Sunday evening.
Noem’s handbag, which reportedly held $3,000 in cash to pay for gifts, dinner and other family holiday activities, was nicked as she dined at Capital Burger with her family on Easter Sunday. The purse also contained her keys, Louis Vuitton wallet, medication, passport, Department of Homeland Security access badge, blank checks, driver’s license and makeup bag, according to reports.
Video surveillance showed the man, wearing an N95 mask, strode into the D.C. eatery past two plainclothes Secret Service officers who were sitting at the bar, WRC-TV reported. He then headed upstairs where Noem’s table was, planted himself at an adjacent table, and edged the bag out from under her chair with his foot. When it was within reach, he grabbed it, hid it under his jacket and left, walking right past the Secret Service agents on his way out, NBC News said.
“This was not an amateur,” Martin told NBC News. “This was a person, a thief, that knew how to do this. You could see how he scouted the room out.”
The suspect was arrested without incident in Washington on Saturday, following an investigation by the U.S. Secret Service and the Metropolitan Police Department, Secret Service Washington Field Office Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool said in a statement.
McCool labeled the suspect as a “serial offender.” He has also been connected via video evidence to two other handbag thefts in Washington D.C. restaurants from earlier this month and charged in them as well, the Metropolitan Police Department said.
“We have also determined that this incident had no protective nexus to Secretary Noem or her role as Secretary of Homeland Security,” McCool said, echoing Martin’s assessment. “The investigation revealed alleged criminal activity, including potential device and credit card fraud,” he said.
Noem thanked the Secret Service, ICE and other law enforcement for nabbing “the career criminal who has been in our country illegally for years,” in a post on X. “Unfortunately, so many families in this country have been made victims by crime, and that’s why President Trump is working every single day to make America safe and get these criminal aliens off of our streets.”
With News Wire Services
