A small San Antonio shop owner was shocked by support from a Facebook group that calls themselves ‘chismosas’ or gossipers.
SAN ANTONIO — When two women stole more than $1,500 in merchandise from his small northwest side specialty shop Sunday afternoon, Garrett Heath said he was saddened but he says he was shocked by what happened next.
Heath said early on he was advised to post pictures of the two suspects on a popular Facebook group with almost 200,000 motivated members.
Users of “210 La Chimosa Cecilia Chavez” spread the plea for help, Heath said, and immediately things started happening.
The groundswell of support led to the two women returning to the store Monday morning with the stolen pricey purses.
“You’ll never believe this, but the people reached out to me!” Heath said, adding “I guess sometimes even there’s an honor among thieves.”
Heath said the women didn’t offer an explanation for the theft or the return.
“They offered to pay for them. I didn’t want to take the money. I just said, please never come here again,” Heath said, adding he feels for others who may have been targeted by the pair.
“This is so just horrific for small businesses, and I’m sure we’re not the only business that was hit,” Heath said.
Heath, who said he had never heard of the group before, was bowled over by their kindness of people who willingly call themselves gossipers.
“The 210 Chismosas, are the people, they’re like Batman. They live in the shadows and they can find anyone. So, if you’re a business, have a camera, if you have a theft, post it!” Heath said.
The swiftness of the response was amazing. “I had about nine people give me this lady’s name, people gave me her phone number, Venmo account, it’s incredible,” Heath said, adding “I am just so thankful to that group, the 210 Chismosas. I mean, without them, this would not have happened. It would have just been another theft.”
Heath said people with less than honorable intentions have no place to hide in San Antonio.
“If you’re doing something not good and there’s a picture of you, they are going to find you. They are the internet sleuths. I don’t know how they did it!” Heath said.
“The theft happened at around 4:36 on Sunday afternoon and I learned about it from the store manager around the 5:30 time frame and by the time I made a post later that night, I mean within an hour, I had a name. And then within two hours, I had the name from three people and I woke up this morning and it was from 10 people. I mean, it was incredible.” Heath marveled.
After recovering his own goods, Heath said he wants to make sure other small operations don’t experience the same grief.
“San Antonio is a tight knit community, and I don’t want anyone else to get ripped off from these folks. So, the more attention we can call on it, the better,” Heath said.
Heath said the stealthy way the women operated was particularly aggravating. “We pride ourselves on customer service, we take care of our community and our sales rep was engaged in conversation with one of the women and the other one just picked us clean. And so that’s really unsettling, it just doesn’t feel good,” Heath said.
In addition to tips, Heath said he got an additional boost from supportive comments by others.
“I can’t tell you how many people left a comment they said ‘This just isn’t right. We can’t have this here.'” Heath said, adding “It was just like people on the street, normal people just rising up to help out, which was really, really cool!”
“It kind of restores your faith in the web, I would say, and humanity in general and San Antonio in particular,” Heath said, adding that after he filed an initial report with police, he spoke with SAPD again to tell them the merchandise had been returned.
Heath said police advised him to go forward with his complaint so that if others had been victimized a stronger case could be developed.
The non-emergency line for SAPD is: 210-207-SAPD (7273).