Bold thefts at Houston offices and businesses may be connected

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Investigators are now looking into whether several brazen thefts at businesses across the greater Houston area might be related.

The manager at the Texas Hair Team, off I-45, told us two women came in Tuesday asking to use the bathroom when employees there were ripped off. The victims, just feet away.

The surveillance video spurred one Galleria area spa to send us a picture -- a woman the owner says recently ripped them off under similar circumstances.

Other victims have now come forward saying, they too were duped by a woman who entered their workplace under false pretenses.

"I think it's the same person. The way she's doing it is the same," said eye doctor Muriel Ferreira. She was wrapping up with patients on January 4th at her office in The Woodlands when she realized she'd been hit. "I couldn't believe it.. I felt violated, " Ferreira said.

Staff said a customer had been inside, she claimed, just to look around. Before anyone realized it, that person went into Ferreira's private office in the back, snatched what she wanted and fled. They tried to spend $1000 at a cell phone store and another $600 on hair products.

At a dentist's office in Northwest Harris County, office staff thinks the same person took advantage of them. "Brazen" and "bold" are words used by victims there who didn't notice a woman entered the office through a side door in December.

"She walked all the way back here.. This is the area where we keep our bags," said the worker who does not want to be identified.

Only when confronted did that stranger claim she needed to find the restroom. She'd apparently already nabbed what she wanted.

"She left here, went down the street to the mall, and went shopping," said the employee who was among those ripped off.

The victim's we spoke with, say the thief tried to charge upwards of a thousand dollars to each of their cards. They're hoping police will look at the details of their cases and find similarities that will lead to an arrest or arrests.