Car keys stall accused purse poacher

By Chris Dumond

Published: August 26, 2008

BEDFORD — If you’re going to commit a crime, locking the keys in your getaway vehicle may not be the best way to go.

But that’s just what 61-year-old Carolyn Fay Biggs of Bedford is accused of doing, along with stealing more than $200 out of a woman’s purse.

Biggs appeared before General District Court Judge James Farmer on Monday. Farmer ruled there was enough evidence to send her charge of grand larceny to the Bedford grand jury.

Summer Thompson testified that on the morning of March 25, she brought breakfast to her roommate, who was working at the Tractor Supply Co. in the Wal-Mart shopping center off U.S. 460 in Bedford.

Thompson said she left her pocketbook, containing most of a $300 paycheck, on the passenger seat with the door unlocked.

“I was only going to be a few minutes,” she said.

But according to testimony, a man in the parking lot saw Biggs cruising through the parking lot, pulling up beside various cars and looking inside. When Biggs pulled up next to Thompson’s car she got out, took the purse out of Thompson’s car and into her car, then put it back, light a few hundred dollars, according to testimony.

When she put the purse back, she pulled her sleeve over her hand and started wiping down the door and doorframe, according to testimony.

When confronted, Biggs first told the man the car was her daughter’s. As he was telling her he didn’t believe her, Biggs noticed she had locked herself out of her car.

Bedford County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Christian Stoneman testified she unlocked Biggs’ car and found $217 in loose cash in the floorboards.

If indicted by the grand jury and convicted in circuit court, grand larceny carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

Biggs is free on bond.