A 40-year-old Bangor mother and her son were strolling the aisles at Wal-Mart on Monday when the woman stopped to pick up a candle for a sniff. During that short moment, unknown to her, someone reportedly stole her wallet that contained $15 and a credit card.

When she reached the checkout counter to make a purchase, she realized her wallet was missing from her purse. She called Bangor Police Department and Officer Kevin MacLaren responded.

The woman told MacLaren that she had placed her purse in the child seat of the shopping cart, thinking her son would tend it while she examined the candle display. Once she realized her son hadn’t been watching the purse, she told MacLaren she didn’t let the purse out of her sight. She told the police officer that her checkbook and driver’s license were not taken.

Also contained in the missing wallet were her Social Security card and two of her children’s Social Security cards. She told MacLaren she thought the wallet might have contained video store cards and a medical identification card.

MacLaren advised the woman to cancel the credit card when she returned home, so it could not be used. The woman told MacLaren she did not see anyone take the wallet, nor did her son. No suspects have been found.

A Hampden woman had even worse luck with her credit cards. Her bank called on Saturday to ask if she had engaged in an “abnormal spending spree.” The credit card company MBNA told her of a series of purchases made on two of her cards and where the purchases had been made. After the woman contacted the stores involved, she canceled the cards. She reported the loss of the two VISA cards, one a debit card to the Bangor police, and told Officer Dan Herrick that she believed they had been missing since last Wednesday.

On that date, according to a report made by Herrick, the card was used in Bangor at The Waterfront restaurant, formerly Legends. The cards next were used at 5 p.m. Saturday at a gas station in Newport for a charge of $1, and again at a Bangor Exxon 31/2hours later, for a charge of $1. Then, within the hour, a charge of $822.29 was rung up at Kmart for the purchase of a color television, a DVD player and two pairs of bluejeans.

Then on Sunday, the suspect attempted to use the card at Wal-Mart for a debit card charge of $649.20, for a computer monitor, a keyboard, a printer and paper. The charge was refused.

Herrick reported that personnel at Kmart and Wal-Mart had described two suspects, saying one was a slender white female, about 6 feet tall. The woman was wearing a pink sweater and a leopard-print jacket, and was thought to have been in her early 30s.

The woman was accompanied by a white male in his early 40s, wearing jeans and a leatherlike jacket. He reportedly was balding, with salt-and-pepper brown hair, and may have had a moustache. He also reportedly was wearing a flannel shirt. A Wal-Mart employee said he looked as if he had a broken arm, but the Kmart employee hadn’t seen anything like that. No suspects have been located.

– Compiled by Alixandra Williams of the NEWS Staff