Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed Monday that her purse was stolen the night before while she dined downtown in the District.

Ms. Noem had $3,000, her passport, driver’s license, house keys and blank checks inside the purse when it was swiped Sunday evening.

According to CNN, the secretary’s Secret Service detail said security footage showed an unknown White man wearing a medical mask swipe her bag and leave the restaurant.

The DHS secretary confirmed the theft Monday while speaking at the White House’s Easter Egg Roll. She said the incident is “not resolved” at this time.

“Her entire family was in town including her children and grandchildren – she was using the withdrawal to treat her family to dinner, activities, and Easter gifts,” a DHS spokesperson said.

The robbery took place at the Capital Burger, a high-end hamburger place at New York Avenue and Seventh Street Northwest, just south of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.

A law enforcement source told CNN that her bank accounts are being tracked to see whether the thief is using them.

Restaurant owners in the District have pinned some of their financial woes on the level of crime in the city.

Makan and Thirsty Crow, a restaurant and adjoining basement bar in Columbia Heights, closed in February after owner James Wozniuk said repeated burglaries and a stray bullet through one of his windows have put diners on edge.  

“Columbia Heights is really just kind of going through it. Just on a personal level, the amount of crime that we’ve dealt with in the last three years… it’s just not normal,” he told Eater DC at the time. “We get a lot of emails saying the two big complaints are just, you know, there’s no parking and guests just don’t feel safe coming to that area.”

The trend of crime-induced restaurant closures was more pronounced in 2023 when a generational spike in shootings, carjackings and robberies ravaged the District.

That year, two restaurants along the H Street Corridor in Northeast — The Pursuit Wine Bar & Kitchen and Brine Oyster & Seafood House — said high crime factored into their closures.

The Pursuit said three burglaries within a month cost the restaurant $15,000. Brine mentioned the citywide spike in violent crime as a reason for shutting locations on H Street and in Dupont Circle.

But even as crime receded in 2024, D.C. restaurants saw a record 73 eateries shutter, according to a survey conducted by the Restaurant Association of Metropolitan Washington.

The organization said a mix of higher overhead costs in the District, combined with less foot traffic and tipped wage increases that chip away at profits, made running a restaurant untenable for owners.

• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.