Downtown

July photos of alleged “office creeper”

From an email (also posted on the Petworth Parents listserv):

“I know this is an unusual thing to post but since a lot of you work in office buildings in DC, I figured we are more likely to catch this thief if people know she is coming. Share this with your building’s security staff and ask them how to handle it if you see her.

This thief successfully stole cash from out of several people’s work spaces here at EPA. I actually met her as she was I returned to my cubicle and she was standing in my cube. She quickly said something about “Oh! I was just fixing my hair”. I thought that was strange but quickly forgot about it as she engaged me in a (long!) conversation about the holiday party we will be having (she had a flyer for the party in her hand) and she was so friendly. I just gave her the benefit of the doubt since she was inside the building, very friendly/relaxed and there are often detailees here I don’t know. She was very engaging, had a lovely smile and was dressed professionally. Her hair was shorter than in these photos – shoulder length, very glossy and soft. I have no idea how she got into our building but the fact that she got in is what really bothers me.

This security alert below came from a colleague who’s husband works at the Wells Fargo office on 14th street. When she told him about what happened at EPA, he realized it was the same thief as was highlighted in a security alert he had received – that alert is below.”

Back in July and August, we sent out a couple of Alerts regarding a female office creeper that we dubbed the Law Firm Creeper because she specialized in hitting buildings with large law firms as tenants. She is very smooth and will often try to talk her way into the back area of the building so that she can hop into the freight elevator to access tenant spaces. Other times, she will go for the regular elevators.

She studies her targets on the Internet and sometimes greets people by name if their pictures are on the firm’s web site. She was arrested in August, but it appears that she is back on the street, doing what she does best: larceny. She attempted to enter a building on K Street last week the Downtown Bid just sent out a photo of her trying to enter buildings in his area.

She is a prolific office burglar who will dress like she belongs in a Class A building. When trying to talk her way past security/concierge with a variety of stories, she will drop the names of senior partners in the law firm that she intends to steal from. If she can’t get to the freight elevator or the main elevators, she will walk up the stairwell from the garage to the floor that she wants and knock on the door until someone lets her in. Now that it is cold, she will leave her overcoat in a women’s bathroom, pick up a file, and walk through the space like she is a temporary employee who belongs there until she can find wallets or purses to steal from.

She is 5’5”- 5’7”, dark complexion, 30-ish, medium build.