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Sandra Yi ReportingCapt. Tom McLachlan: "It appears from their methodology that they had either done this before or have practiced it before."
The woman involved in a brazen robbery and attempted kidnapping outside a West Valley City grocery store was caught on tape. Now police hope someone will recognize the suspect.
It happened on Friday afternoon and police say the woman didn't work alone. A man also helped rob the victim and threatened to hurt the victim's two-year old son.
The couple targeted the victim in the parking lot of an Albertson's store. The man wasn't caught on tape, but his female accomplice was and police hope someone will recognize her.
Tom McLachlan: "It appears from their methodology that they had either done this before or have practiced it before, and were fairly confident and calm in their manner."
The woman struck up a conversation with the victim, and then her partner joined in.
Tom McLachlan: "Then the female suspect picked up the small child, forced the mother and the small child back into the vehicle."
Police say the couple robbed the victim and took several hundred dollars from her purse. They didn't stop there. The female suspect then forced the victim to go to a bank inside a store and withdraw more money.
A camera caught the suspect walking into a Albertson's grocery store with the victim and the victim's child in hand. If you saw it in person, you probably wouldn't even realize something was wrong. A close up shot- taken by a bank security camera inside the store shows much more: The faces of the victim and her little boy are blurred for their protection, but if you could see their eyes, you could tell how scared both of them were.
Police say the woman on the right forced the victim to withdraw money from the bank. She did this by threatening to hurt the woman's child. She is even holding the child in a couple of images captured by the bank's security camera. Police say the victim complied out of fear for her son's safety.
Tom McLachlan: "They threatened the child. They said, 'We'll harm the child if you don't do what we tell you to do.'"
The couple then forced the victim to drive to a fast-food store. That's where the suspects got out of the victim's car and left. The victim drove back to the Albertsons and called police.
Tom McLachlan: "The threats that they had made toward the child and the trauma they inflicted, the fear they inflicted, we'd really like to find out who they are."
Police say the female suspect in the surveillance video is between 40 to 45 years old, short and heavy-set with blond hair. They say the skin on her cheek is discolored.
The man she was with is 60 to 65 years old, 6 feet tall with a thin build and gray hair.
Police say the suspects didn't show a weapon, but they are anxious to find the pair before they repeat this crime. If you have any information, call West Valley City Police.
