I want to catch a thief stealing from my purse. Any ideas?

I’m really trying hard to write a sensible answer here and the best I can come up with is keep your purse with you at all times or leave it in a locker or with a friend.

The next best thing is to install a spy-camera to catch the criminal red-handed! Woo!
—I’m sorry.

Good luck on your detective work though!

hmm. Get a decoy purse and dump a box of Rit dye into all the pockets. Maybe you can literally catch the bum “red handed”.

Do you work in an area where you have access to a computer and are basically adept with pcs? You can buy and hide a small wireless webcam. like this then show the recorded evidence to your boss/police.
And @trickface I do not believe in your remedy/opinion. The victim should not be blamed. We should be able to live in a world where our possessions are safe from thieves. (Just to brag, I live in such a place, I go to work without locking my doors and there are 10,000 people in my town)
Good people need to learn to band together in unity and not to live in fear.

Is there any pattern to it? How frequent, what time of day, what day, and how long has this been going on? What has been stolen? Any pattern you observe is a starting point.

Also if your behavior is extremely regular—absent at certain times in a predictable pattern, say for a staff meeting or a lunch break—that can be useful. If your thief is using your predictable behavior to victimize you, you can change your behavior unexpectedly.

Are you in an area where other workers also have personal belongings that might be exposed? Do you have any reason to think that you’ve been singled out? If not, chances are others are experiencing losses too. This too may help you.

I used to work in a cubicle farm where women typically left their purses in a drawer. We’d be in and out of our cubes all day, going to meetings, going to the printer, etc. If this had happened to me there, I would have reported it to my manager very discreetly and waited to see if others made similar reports. Then we could have pooled our observations in order to nail the culprit.

I like the decoy idea. M. Jas. Bond would have a tear gas cannister in there, Bugs Bunny a mousetrap. You might settle for Ex-Lax-dosed edibles and watch the bathrooms.

Small cameras are easy to find, either that or fill the bag with mouse traps and come runing if you hear a yell.

Are you working in an office? Do you have a laptop/pc with a webcam? There are plenty of motion activation apps for webcams on the web that will take a pickture of anyone passing your camera and email the image off site if needed.

Aren’t other people around to witness this? Nobody notices a person (who isn’t you) going into your purse and rummaging around?

I’d get a set of First Alert Window Alarms. You can get them a Kohls, Lowes, etc. They are battery operated and work magnetically. The siren unit has an on off switch that you can operate with a bent paper clip.
Set it up and leave it. When “sticky fingers” opens the purse the siren will go off. Don’t forte

Or you can by a cheap web cam for your pc and record. Or if the room is isolated, you can use a Deer Trail cam to photograph the slime bucket in the act.

A Victor rat trap in the purse works too.

Rat traps… the big kind, with real heavy springs; the ones that will cause some serious pain but ( hopefully ) not break any bones. : ))

Or perhaps some of the larger fish hooks in the lining of your purse? Mwahahahaha! : D

I’d go for an alarm. first thought was rig up a rape alarm, but window alarm sounds like a better idea. I’d also consider a small bomb, but I’d also probably get fired for that…

I’d definitely tell your boss about it. But I agree with the alarms or the decoy purse ideas that were stated above. You have to be sneaky, just like them!

Yes, mousetrap as recommended by @CaptainHarley.

I like the alarm idea. There are magnetic alarms that you can get starting at 2–3 bucks. Take your stuff out and put this as the only thing in your purse (unless it would look weird empty, then stuff it with paper). The thief will find out that you don’t appreciate them going into your bag and your boss will be very interested to know what’s been going on.

Speaking of your boss, have you told them about the thievery?