News 12 @ 11 o'clock -- February 11, 2009

MARTINEZ, Ga. --- "I couldn't believe it. I was in shock," said Addie Hays. Hays and her friends were out at the Applebee's on North Belair Road Tuesday night when investigators say a man took her purse and her identity.

"I was reaching over to get the to go box, putting my food in it, and that's when I leaned up off the chair and he grabbed my purse off the chair," said Hays.

But Hays says what surprised her the most was the man in the picture was next to her at the bar.

"He was sitting right next to me the whole time we were eating," she said.

Investigators say after the man took the purse, he went just a few miles up the road to two Walmart stores and tried to buy a PlayStation 3 using Hays's credit cards. Luckily, she had already canceled them.

"I can't get into my bank account, because it's frozen, just to see if anything else tries to come through. I have to open a new account, order new checks, new cards. Now I have to watch my credit for the rest of my life, pretty much. Because he has everything he could possibly need and for my child," said Hays.

But her own identity isn't the only one Hays is worried about. Now that the man has their information, she says all she can do is wait.

"What am I going to do for the next however long for my child to watch and make sure there's nothing being opened on him? Being a minor, there's not a whole lot I can do right now except wait. It's felony charges. He deserves every bit of it. I don't want anybody to have to go through this," Hays said.

The man tried to use the cards at the Walmart on Washington Road and on Bobby Jones. Call the Columbia County Sheriff's Office at (706) 541-1042 if you have any information on who this man is.