Several recent distraction thefts have people warning their fellow Edmontonians to be vigilant.
Peggy Duby, 87, was taking the trash out to the curb last week when her necklace was stolen outside her home.
She was putting her black garbage bin into place on the curb on Wednesday ahead of pickup, when a car pulled up.
“(The driver) asked if I needed help and I said, ‘No, I’m fine,'” Duby says, but a woman jumped out of the car anyway.
“She took my mittens off … had both mittens off and was kissing my hands,” Duby says.
“Then she took a ring and put it on my finger. Then she started kissing my neck and hugging me. Then she put a cheap, big fat chain on my neck.”
“I was trying to get away, but she had a real grip on me and she wouldn’t let go.”
Eventually, Duby says, the woman did let go and got into the car, which sped off.
“I went back into the house, took the chain off,” Duby says, “Then I noticed my gold chain was gone.”
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Duby calls the experience upsetting.
“I’ve been shook up ever since,” she says.
“Now what do I do when I meet people? I know I have to be nice, but I don’t want to be too friendly.”
Distraction thefts began to make headlines across Alberta last year, when RCMP received a number of reports related to gold and jewelry scams.
According to police, distraction thefts typically follow a similar pattern: people are approached in parking lots, driveways or the side of the road, where a scammer starts a conversation or offers a hug or blessing.
Then while the victim is distracted by the gesture, the thief removes their jewelry without their knowledge — sometimes after replacing it with different pieces.
Some of the robberies happened in parking lots, where the scam follows a pattern: a victim is approached or flagged down by a seemingly stranded motorist. The scammer will use different tactics — they need money for food, gas or airfare to get home — and offer gold or jewelry for exchange.
In some cases, it’s been reported the thieves will use distraction techniques to remove real jewelry from a victim and replace it with something cheap, as was the case with Duby.
Scammers have been known to target the elderly, experts say. Several hundred distraction theft complaints were made to police in Edmonton and Calgary in 2025.
It’s an alarming trend that police say is taking place from coast to coast in Canada.
“Please be aware,” stresses Rajesh Arora, president of the Bhartiya Cultural Society of Alberta.
Over the past six months, Arora says, at least two thefts have happened right outside the society’s Hindu temple in Edmonton. The first was in September.
The temple’s security camera footage shows a worshipper being called over to a vehicle in the building’s parking lot.
Someone in the passenger seat appears to put something over the worshipper’s neck two separate times. The second time, they grab at the victim’s own necklace and speed off.
Arora describes another theft happened Saturday, in almost the exact same spot.
“Somebody … handed over to her some kind of a fake ring or a necklace and in 20-30 seconds of conversation time, they snatched her gold necklace that she was wearing,” Arora said.
Arora says the society is telling its members not to engage with strangers. He says it’s disappointing they need to take that step.
“Even if somebody really wants some help, do not help. That’s basically how it will end up because of one bad egg in the basket,” Arora says.
Previously, police have told people to be vigilant if they’re suddenly approached by strangers, especially if they’re trying to sell or give something away.
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