Alleged DHS Sec. Kristi Noem thief hit with federal charges

A man accused of stealing the purse of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a restaurant while she was under Secret Service protection was charged Monday by federal prosecutors with that and two other alleged bag thefts in Washington, D.C., a court filing shows.

The defendant, Mario Bustamente Leiva, is charged with robbery, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft in connection with the three alleged thefts between April 12 and 20, the third of which involved Noem as she dined with her family 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 complaint against the Chilean national in U.S. District Court in D.C.

Bustamente Leiva, a 49-year-old who prosecutors say is in the country illegally, was arrested Saturday in a D.C. motel.

His alleged accomplice in the April 12 theft was arrested Sunday in South Florida, according to the Secret Service. That second man was not identified.

A criminal complaint says that Secret Service officers who executed a search warrant in the motel room where Bustamente Leiva was arrested found Noem’s purse and wallet, an American Express gift card, more than $3,170 in cash and clothing that appears to match a jacket and sneakers he wore when he allegedly committed the robberies on April 17 and 20.

Noem’s bag contained $3,000 in cash when it was swiped, authorities have said.

The complaint also says that after stealing Noem’s purse, Bustamente Leiva used several of her credit cards to buy food and alcohol at an Italian restaurant, and that he ultimately spent more than $205 in five purchases charged to her American Express cards.

When he was arrested on Saturday at the motel, Bustamente Leiva was taken to a hospital after complaining of alcohol withdrawal, according to the court filing.

After he was cleared from the hospital, he was interviewed by D.C. police and a Secret Service agent.

He “stated that he was an alcoholic and therefore that he has memory issues,” but admitted to stealing Noem’s bag, the complaint said.

After being shown a photo of Noem, he “denied having any prior knowledge of who” Noem was, the complaint said.

The complaint details four thefts involving Bustamente Leiva, three of which he is charged with.

In the April 20 incident, the one involving Noem, surveillance video showed the Homeland Security secretary dining at the Capital Burger restaurant and noticing that her purse, which she had placed at her feet, was missing. She then notified her Secret Service detail.

When investigators looked at earlier footage, they saw Bustamente Leiva enter the restaurant at about 7:52 p.m. and sit “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 with his jacket in one hand and, with his other hand, pick up an object from the floor that law enforcement determined to be [Noem’s] purse,” the complaint said.

This alleged theft was the fourth one that authorities have connected to Bustamente Leiva, in just over a week’s tim.

In the first, 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 removing” the victim’s “purse from the back of her chair and exiting the Nando’s,” the complaint said.

“During this offense, Bustamente Leiva appeared to be acting in concert with a second individual, 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 in custody at the time of the offense awaiting a mental competency hearing,” according to the criminal complaint.