A North Carolina mom stopped a teen pickpocket in her tracks during a family trip to Italy and is now going viral online for how she handled the would-be thief.
The video shows a woman confronting a girl she suspected of covertly stealing her and her family’s belongings alongside a group of teen thieves in Venice.
“You stole my purse with my passport in it!” the mother is heard yelling at the teen in the video.
The woman’s daughter, Lauren McElroy, shared that the family was walking through Venice, looking for their hotel, when a throng of teenagers suddenly surrounded her mom and stepdad.
Next thing they knew, their wallet, passport, and AirPods from their bag were gone. A purse stolen from a zipped-up bookbag also went missing.
They tracked down their AirPods through the FindMy app and traced the earbuds’ location to a group of girls.
The clip shows the mom grabbing and holding one teen by her hair as she chastises her out of frustration at the pickpocketing scheme.
The girl screams at the woman.
“Police! Police! Police!” the girl shouts before screeching in the mom’s face.
The mom is unfazed by the girl’s rage.
“Little girl, I got eight kids, you not getting to me,” she says calmly.
Another teenager suggests calling the police, and the woman agrees.
The accused teenager’s tune changes at that.
“Calm down,” she tells the woman.
“You’re the one screaming,” the woman responds. “That’s right, let’s get the police, and maybe I’ll get my passport back.
McElroy said that they spent an entire afternoon trying to recover their belongings. Someone found her mother’s purse and turned it into the United States liaison at a Venice airport.
The family told WSOC that the other items were returned to them, and police arrested the girl the mother was holding. The teen was later released.
McElroy’s video garnered 400,000 likes and 4,000 and counting comments. Many were tickled my her mother’s calm ferocity.
“The grip she has i love it “i have 8 kids u won’t get to me” 😭,” mused one person.
“you’re the one screaaaaamiiiiing” 🤣 your mom is iconic lol good on her for getting her purse back!” added another.
