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Kristi Noem, Homeland Security Secretary, right through a gathering with US President Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele, El Salvador’s president, within the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 14, 2025.
Al Drago | The Washington Post | Getty Images
A person accused of stealing the handbag of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a cafe whilst she was once beneath Secret Service coverage was once charged Monday through federal prosecutors with that and two different alleged bag thefts in Washington, D.C., a court docket submitting presentations.
The defendant, Mario Bustamente Leiva, is charged with theft, cord fraud and irritated identification robbery in reference to the 3 alleged thefts between April 12 and 20, the 3rd of which concerned Noem as she dined along with her circle of relatives for Easter at Capital Burger.
“Following each robbery, Bustamente Leiva made fraudulent purchases using the credit cards obtained from the victim of each robbery,” a U.S. Secret Service agent wrote in a criticism in opposition to the Chilean nationwide in U.S. District Court in D.C.
Bustamente Leiva, a 49-year-old who prosecutors say is within the nation illegally, was once arrested Saturday in a D.C. motel.
His alleged companion within the April 12 robbery was once arrested Sunday in South Florida, in line with the Secret Service. That 2nd guy was once no longer known.
A felony criticism says that Secret Service officials who achieved a seek warrant within the motel room the place Bustamente Leiva was once arrested discovered Noem’s handbag and pockets, an American Express reward card, greater than $3,170 in money and clothes that looks to compare a jacket and footwear he wore when he allegedly dedicated the robberies on April 17 and 20.
Noem’s bag contained $3,000 in money when it was once swiped, government have stated.
The criticism additionally says that when stealing Noem’s handbag, Bustamente Leiva used a number of of her bank cards to shop for meals and alcohol at an Italian eating place, and that he in the end spent greater than $205 in 5 purchases charged to her American Express playing cards.
When he was once arrested on Saturday on the motel, Bustamente Leiva was once taken to a health center after complaining of alcohol withdrawal, in line with the court docket submitting.
After he was once cleared from the health center, he was once interviewed through D.C. police and a Secret Service agent.
He “stated that he was an alcoholic and therefore that he has memory issues,” however admitted to stealing Noem’s bag, the criticism stated.
After being proven a photograph of Noem, he “denied having any prior knowledge of who” Noem was once, the criticism stated.
Under D.C. regulation, somebody is responsible of theft in the event that they, “by force or violence, whether against resistance or by sudden or stealthy seizure or snatching, or by putting in fear, shall take from the person or immediate actual possession of another anything of value.”
Suspect 2 (left) and Mario E. Bustamante Leiva (proper) on the King Street metro
station on April 15, 2025.
Courtesy: MPD
The criticism main points 4 thefts involving Bustamente Leiva, 3 of which he’s charged with.
In the April 20 incident, the only involving Noem, surveillance video confirmed the Homeland Security secretary eating on the Capital Burger eating place and noticing that her handbag, which she had positioned at her ft, was once lacking. She then notified her Secret Service element.
When investigators checked out previous pictures, they noticed Bustamente Leiva input the eating place at about 7:52 p.m. and take a seat “down at a table within an arm’s reach of” Noem,” the complaint says.
Footage showed Bustamente Leiva twisting his body toward Noem’s purse and moving his left leg, apparently to drag the purse toward him, according to the complaint.
“The video then captured the suspect bend down together with his jacket in a single hand and, together with his different hand, pick out up an object from the ground that regulation enforcement decided to be [Noem’s] handbag,” the criticism stated.
with Kristi Noem’s purse and wallet.
Courtesy: MPD
That alleged theft was the fourth one that authorities say Bustamente Leiva committed in just over a week’s time.
In the first incident, on April 12, a woman told police that her purse had been taken from the back of her chair while she was dining at Nando’s restaurant on F street in Northwest D.C. Surveillance video revealed Bustamente Leiva “stealthily taking away” the victim’s “handbag from the again of her chair and exiting the Nando’s,” the complaint said.
“During this offense, Bustamente Leiva gave the look to be appearing in live performance with a 2nd particular person, Suspect-2,” according to that filing.
After that theft, the two men seen on the video went to a Safeway grocery store, where the man identified as Suspect-2 bought a $500 Visa gift card using the victim’s credit card.
Over the next four days, the gift card was used to make $462 worth of charges, including an April 12 transaction for a stay at the Motel 6 where Bustamente Leiva was arrested on Saturday, as well as other hotel stays, according to the complaint.
The complaint details two thefts on the night of April 17, allegedly committed by Bustamente Leiva.
In the first of those, at the Dolcezza coffee and gelato shop in downtown D.C., he is seen on surveillance video using his leg to pull a tan shoulder bag toward him from an outdoor table where a group of customers were sitting. He leaned down and removed a rectangular item consistent with the shape of a wallet or purse, the complaint said.
Bustamente Leiva is not charged with that alleged theft.
A short time later, surveillance video showed him at the Westin Hotel Downtown, a block away.
The video was pulled by police when they investigated a complaint by a woman who had been dining at the Westin, who said her purse had been stolen from the back of her chair, the complaint said.
The woman told police she had learned that her American Express card, which had been in her purse, was used to make an attempted purchase at what turned out to be the same Safeway that Bustamente Leiva and his alleged accomplice visited after the April 12 theft, the complaint said.
Surveillance footage later showed Bustamente Leiva walking by the victim’s chair at the Westin, and that her purse disappeared from the back of that chair after he passed by it with a coat covering his left arm, the complaint said.
Other surveillance footage showed him about 15 minutes later at the Safeway, where he purchased a bottle of red wine for $12.12, and a $400 Amex gift card with the victim’s American Express card.
Authorities later excluded Bustamente Leiva’s alleged accomplice in the other thefts from the April 17 crimes after they learned he “was once in custody on the time of the offense anticipating a psychological competency listening to,” in line with the felony criticism.
