What is the Felony Lane Gang?

The Felony Lane Gang appears to be a Florida-based, roaming band of about 100 people who target areas where women frequent, keeping an eye out for purses left in cars in order to break into the vehicle via window, grab the purse and then use stolen banking information to withdraw money from the victim’s bank, according to numerous reports.

As , a suspected member of the Felony Lane Gang was arrested in Milford and is wanted for questioning in connection with crimes in Wilton, New Canaan and Westport.  While four other similar crimes have been reported in Wilton—that is, purses snatched out of parked cars through a broken window at both the and —Captain John Lynch of the said police have no justifiable reason to believe that the crimes were of the Felony Lane Gang type, as none of the victims reported identity thefts.

So just how infamous and wide spread is the Felony Lane Gang? Looks like they’ve been active for at least a couple of years and have been on a million-dollar crime spree throughout the states, being particularly active these past few months.

CBS4 Miami reports that the Felony Lane Gang is on a “national crime spree” and that the gang has been wanted for “high speed chases” and “millions of dollars in check fraud” in an article from April 5 2012. The same article reports that the gang is suspected to have hit “at least half a dozen states.”

An April 28 news article from Missouri’s Landmark, in which a Secret Service agent is interviewed, states that the gang has stolen “millions of dollars” and suggests that it might not be one cohesive group. Gang members may also use wigs and sunglasses to disguise themselves as their victim, the article reads.

Video footage from WSB News Channel 2 in Atlanta interviewed one woman who was robbed at a Church in Atlanta. “‘I got out of my car, they saw I didn’t have a bag over my shoulder, and they went in for the kill, in a minute-and-a-half,’” the victim tells an off-camera reporter. The video was published online on April 5 of this year.  

It’s not entirely clear how long the Felony Lane Gang has been in operation. The News 5 WLWT report states that some of the suspects have felony charges stretching back to 2007, but does not say if they were Felony Lane Gang-related. The City of Missouri’s Circuit Attorney has an online fraud-prevention statement that states the gang and off-shoots of it have “been in operation throughout the United States since 2004.”

A 2010 video report from News 5 WLWT covering a Felony Lane Gang crime states that the transient thieves use rental cars and stay in hotels, “casing their victims and stealing their purses.” After the gang steals the purse from a parked car, personal information is turned over to a “group of women who actually dress up as the victim and go to the bank.” While the thief uses the outer banking lane—the so-called felony lane—“another team member distracts the teller in another lane,” the reporter explains.

In the city of Naperville, Illinois, the gang is said to have stolen over $100,000 in cash and goods since 2010, .

Residents would be wise to not leave their purse in the car, if even for a short while..