Purse Stolen From Gym Parking Lot Serves As Warning For Others

Purse Stolen From Gym Parking Lot Serves As Warning For Others

Cindy Torres tells News on 6 she was working out at the Planet Fitness at 91st and Memorial last month when someone broke out her tinted window and found the purse she hit underneath the passenger seat.

“I was really upset about it. Everything was in there, my debit cards, credit cards, I had my social in there, I had my work card in there, all my work keys, everything was gone.”

The thief’s used her cards to make $400.00 in purchases from Walmart, Fiesta Mart, and Academy Sports.

Torres said she heard about a time when the locks were cut in the locker room so she didn’t feel safe taking her purse into the gym with her and thought since it was hidden under the passenger seat no one would actually break out her window to look for it.

Torres says Planet Fitness took pictures of the damage and reported it to police but so far an arrest hasn’t been made. She says the bad guys were in a black Ford Escape but she wasn’t able to get the tag.

Michael Nelson has been training in gyms for 35 years and says he’s seen it all.

“I’ve been a victim of it,” he admitted. “If you’ve got wallets, purses put them in your trunk. If they can’t see it they’re not going to break in cause they’re not going to go looking,” he said.

Nelson says it’s best to leave what you have to take with you in the trunk of your car but police say if you don’t need it, leave it at home. That goes for, watches, jewelry, sunglasses, anything of value they say is best kept home.

Tulsa Police report as many as 500 car break-ins around the city every month but say it’s difficult to pinpoint how many of those break-ins actually happen in the parking lot where there is a fitness facility.

We asked Planet Fitness for a comment to our story but at the time of this posting we haven’t heard back.

10 Gym at 81st and Yale has alerted it’s members by posting a sign on its front door saying, “Attention, parking lots of malls, grocery stores, movie theaters, hospitals and fitness centers may periodically experience vehicle break-ins. Do not leave valuables visible, especially purses and wallets. Women’s vehicles may be targeted if they appear to have left purses inside.”