Woman Arrested After $7,275 Chanel Purse Vanishes at Boca’s The Meat Market
BOCA RATON, FL (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2026) — Boca Raton Police arrested a woman on a felony grand theft charge after an investigation into a reported purse theft at The Meat Market on Northwest 19th Street, where officers say surveillance video captured a woman going through a Chanel purse and later walking out of the restaurant with it.
Sandra Beatriz Friedle, 46, was booked Thursday night, Feb. 19, on a charge of grand theft between $5,000 and $10,000 under Florida law, according to police paperwork. The alleged theft was tied to a Feb. 4 incident at The Meat Market, 2000 NW 19th St., where the victim reported her purse missing during a night out at the restaurant.
Police records say officers were dispatched around 11:20 p.m. Feb. 4 for a larceny call and met with the victim, Gina Almonte, who reported that her purse had been stolen. Almonte told officers the purse was taken sometime between about 10:30 p.m. and 11:15 p.m., though she was unsure of the exact spot where she last saw it.
The missing items included a black Chanel flap purse later confirmed as valued at $7,275, a gold-colored leather wallet valued at about $100, a Florida driver’s license, and three debit cards issued by PNC Bank, Bank of America, and TD Bank, according to the probable cause affidavit. Police also documented that the purse contained miscellaneous makeup and black reading glasses.
Investigators later reviewed surveillance footage from the restaurant. In the video, Almonte is seen inside the restaurant earlier in the evening wearing a black Chanel purse consistent with the one later reported stolen. At about 9:40 p.m., the video shows Almonte placing the purse on a couch directly in front of the bar, police wrote.
A supplemental report describes the suspect in the footage as a Hispanic female wearing a white dress who was seated next to the purse. At about 10:11 p.m., the woman is seen opening the victim’s purse and looking through it, police said. The report states the woman removed the victim’s reading glasses, examined them, and then placed them back inside the purse.
About 10:22 p.m., the woman stood up, picked up Almonte’s purse with her left hand, and walked toward a group near the bar where Almonte had been sitting, according to police. The report says the woman then appeared to say goodbye to people in the bar area and exited through the front entrance while still holding the purse.
Exterior footage showed the woman walking toward the valet area and then toward the parking lot of the Renaissance Hotel while carrying both her own cross-body purse and the victim’s Chanel purse, police wrote. The report states the woman was not seen returning the purse, notifying staff, or making any effort to locate the owner.
As detectives worked to identify the suspect, Almonte told police she remembered the woman sitting in the area and said her friend, Case Warshall, had been speaking with the woman throughout the night. Police said their review of the video corroborated Warshall being seated next to the woman for much of the evening.
Warshall later provided detectives a phone number he said belonged to the woman. A database check tied that number to Friedle, police wrote, and investigators also located a social media profile that they said showed a woman matching the person in the surveillance footage.
When police contacted Friedle by landline on Feb. 12 and asked her to respond to the police department regarding an incident, the probable cause affidavit states she spontaneously said, “If this is about a purse.” Police wrote that Friedle said she was holding the purse for a friend and that it was at her residence, and agreed to meet at the Boca Raton Police Department to return it.
Investigators noted in the report that the theft occurred Feb. 4 and that Friedle remained in possession of the purse and its contents for about a week before law enforcement contacted her. The victim’s Florida driver’s license was inside the purse, police wrote, identifying Almonte by name.
Police also interviewed others who were with Friedle that night. A woman identified as Samona Rosenberg told detectives she invited Friedle, her cousin Mallory Breg, and another woman to The Meat Market that evening for drinks and socializing. Rosenberg told police she never told Friedle to hold her purse and said she recalled Almonte stating in front of the group that the Chanel purse belonged to her while it sat on the couch, according to the report. Breg told police she did not ask Friedle to hold her purse and was unaware of any theft on the night it occurred.
Friedle was arrested and processed at Boca Raton Police Department facilities and then transported to the Palm Beach County Jail, police said. The case will proceed through the Palm Beach County court system.
