After it emerged that Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s Gucci bag was brazenly stolen from a Washington, D.C., restaurant on Sunday, questions have swirled as to how this was possible, given that as a government official, she has her own security team.
CNN’s John Miller, chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst for the network, revealed some new details as to how the thief was able to pull off the heist.
Noem’s $4,400 Gucci handbag contained $3,000 in cash, a Louis Vuitton wallet, her DHS access badge, apartment keys, passport, blank checks, and other personal items.
In an appearance on Kaitlan Collins’ show on Tuesday night, Miller said of the perpetrator: “He’s a smooth operator. He does this for a living, there’s no doubt about that.”
Describing what transpired on Easter Sunday at The Capital Burger, Miller said that an examination of security footage by the Secret Service and the D.C. Metro Police showed Noem and her family sitting together inside the restaurant when an individual walked in at 7:52 p.m.
“He looks around, he’s got black pants, white sneakers, a black jacket, a black baseball cap, and he’s wearing an N95 mask like we saw during Covid. And, you know, it appears he might be looking for somebody,” Miller said.
“As a group of people get up from that table, he sits down at the table next to hers, angles over in her direction, and then within three minutes of him entering the restaurant, he’s taken that seat with his left foot, he slides the bag that’s next to her chair under his table.”
Next, the still unidentified man “takes the jacket, puts it over the bag under the table, picks up the jacket, looks around the place again like he’s still looking for who he’s meeting, then gets up with the jacket and the bag under it and leaves,” Miller explained.
As to the question of where Noem’s security team was when her bag was snatched, NBC 4 Washington reports that two plainclothes members of her detail were at the restaurant’s bar between the family’s table and the front door.
It appears that Noem’s expensive taste in bags may have made her a target, according to Miller.
“Based on my experience, if I am a professional pickpocket and bag swiper when I go into a restaurant, I’m looking for the ones hanging on the edge of the bar stools. I’ll have a coat over my arm. I might dip in and see if I can take the purse out,” he said.
“But when I see a $4,400 Gucci bag, the large one, the Gucci bag with the shoulder strap, that’s what’s going to make it targeted,” explained Miller.
“If I think this is a cabinet-level person with Secret Service people around and watching her, that’s going to make me walk away,” he added. “I think what drew him to that table was the bag, because you got a $4,400 bag, you know there’s going to be good stuff inside.”
In addition to his career as a journalist, Miller has worked extensively in law enforcement with the NYPD, LAPD, and FBI.
