An arrest warrant was issued July 22 by Hamilton County Courts for an 18-year-old Indianapolis woman who allegedly spearheaded a pickpocket scheme targeting shoppers in Fishers, Noblesville, Greenwood and Indianapolis.
Shanya Tawan Smith faces two felony charges of organized theft and three misdemeanor theft charges, according to online court records.
A probable cause statement filed in court by Fishers Police Department Officer Ross Yoder summarized the investigation into the organized pickpocket scheme, which included several incidents at the Fishers Walmart, 8300 E 96th St.
The incidents followed a similar pattern. Older women were approached and engaged in conversation as a distraction while a third person came from behind and took wallets out of purses sitting in the victims’ shopping carts.
Smith was detained by Noblesville police following a similar case in late March at that community’s Meijer store, according to Yoder’s statement. She was charged at that time with operating a vehicle without a license, possession of marijuana and theft.
Smith was released on $5,000 bail in that pending case, which is separate from the new charges related to the FPD investigation.
Yoder states that he interviewed Smith while she was detained for the Noblesville arrest. Smith allegedly admitted to driving accomplices to the stores and taking wallets in order to find and remove credit cards, and targeting women with purses sitting on their carts.
“Shanya stated she was taught how to conduct these schemes or artifices from her cousin’s boyfriend (in 2024),” Yoder wrote. “Shanya advised that she taught the other girls on how to commit these crimes. Shanya confirmed verbally that the other girls would claim Shanya was the ringleader and that would be ‘truth.’”
Smith allegedly admitted to committing the crimes in Fishers, Noblesville, Greenwood and Indianapolis, and that they had taken about 30 wallets in total. They used stolen cards to buy clothes and fast food.