KIRKLAND, Wash. — “I don’t know where my silly mind was going at the time.”
Parveen Bashir says she’s upset with herself for letting her guard down as jewelry thieves robbed her in the parking lot of the Kirkland Costco Tuesday evening.
Bashir says it started when she pulled into a parking spot and immediately an SUV pulled up behind her car with a man and two women inside. They rolled down the window and called her over.
“She said ‘I feel you are a very nice woman, please pray for my mother.’ She started putting some artificial necklace on my neck... We were face to face,” said Bashir.
Bashir said the women gave her bracelets and necklaces.
“Both women were talking, talking, talking and I was so confused,” said Bashir.
She says one of the women kissed her on the forehead, as they stole her $3,000 gold necklace.
“I don’t know what they did, maybe they have something to cut it, I don’t know,” the victim said.
As the thieves drove off, Bashir went in to do her shopping and it wasn’t until she got home that she realized her necklace was gone.
“I could not sleep all night because I was feeling, how silly I was – what happened with me?” said Bashir.
Police are investigating numerous incidents, including three in one day last month in Bellevue, and more than a dozen in Redmond.
Police say it’s the work of an organized crime ring targeting the Asian community.
“I have no hope that I can get back my necklace. At least other people can be safe – that people know this is happening in parking lots, they need to be safe,” said Bashir.