Police in Victoria are looking for a young couple accused of robbing an 82-year-old woman who thought she was helping lost tourists.

It’s the latest incident in a string of thefts targeting Good Samaritans and elderly people in B.C.

Aileen McConnell says she was in her car at a shopping plaza in Victoria when the couple approached her.

"They were waving a tourist map of downtown," McConnell told CTV Vancouver.

McConnell thought the man and women were lost tourists, so she offered to help them. She showed them a better map, and the man climbed into the passenger seat to take a look.

While McConnell was focused on the man and the map, she thinks the woman reached through the car window and stole McConnell’s wallet.

A few hours later McConnell realized her credit and debit cards were missing. And $1,000 was gone from her account.

McConnell’s story is just one example of what police call "distracted thefts," a tactic that has been used to target a number of Good Samaritans in B.C., including elderly people. Victoria Police Const. Michael Russell calls the thefts "crimes of opportunity."

In Coquitlam, B.C., the RCMP issued a press release after a pair of similar distracted thefts. The first incident took place in May, when a 58-year-old victim reported her purse had been stolen by a couple who pretended their car had overheated. The woman went inside to get water, and when she returned her purse and the couple had both vanished.

It turned out the couple had been following the woman throughout the day and secretly recorded her PIN number.

In June, a 67-year-old woman in Vancouver’s Lower Mainland reported that her purse was stolen after a similar chain of events.

Elderly people are also often the target of jewelry theft. In the past year in Vancouver alone, thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry has been stolen from seniors.

Many jewelry thieves use a story similar to the one McConnell was told. The thieves pretend to be lost and ask for directions, then hug the victim and secretly remove jewelry at the same time.

Police say it’s always kind to offer help, but that residents also shouldn’t be afraid to say no.

"They were smart," McConnell said, looking back on her own experience. "They knew someone was going to want to help them if they were lost."

With files from CTV Vancouver's Lisa Rossington