In an incident on April 20, two men walked into a dentist's office near the intersection of Cox and Saratoga avenues.

"They generally use a ruse. At a doctor's office, they might ask for directions to the restroom or pretend to be lost when someone confronts them," Sgt. Ed Wise said.

In this particular incident, a staff member at the dentist's office saw one of the men trying to steal two purses. "They confronted him and chased him out," Wise said.

Wise said that the physical description of one of the men matched earlier incidents at Garden Gate Elementary School in Cupertino and other schools in San Jose where a couple had walked in posing as parents and stolen identities and wallets.

"We're not sure how many people are involved at this point, but whenever they have targeted schools it's usually been a male and a female," Wise said.

He said that the suspects look African-American and were in their 20s. "They dress casually and try to blend in. One of the men has a cornrow hairstyle," said Wise.

Staff at the dentist's office in Saratoga noted the license plate number of the getaway car. It turned out to be a car from Enterprise Rental that had been obtained by using a credit card stolen from one of the schools.

A few weeks later the same group struck again, this time in Los Gatos.

Deputies said that the men walked into a doctor's office near Pollard Road and asked for directions to the restroom.

"The staff didn't even know that they'd been hit. We recovered a rental car that had not been returned by them and found some patient profiles inside," Wise said.

Deputies traced the patient profiles back to the doctor's office in Los Gatos. "Later, they discovered more than 70 patient profiles missing," Wise said. "We suspect that they use the personal information to gain more credit."

Lt. Terry Calderone of the county sheriff's department said that Saratoga schools have been warned about the suspects. "The school resource officer has informed every school," he said.

Calderone said that he suspects the couple is still circulating in the area.

"We're asking people to call us. We need one break," he said.

Calderone said that the group is hard to track since it is using multiple identities.

"Criminal ingenuity is expanding. We've had ID thefts before but not to this level of sophistication," Wise said.

He urges medical offices to store their valuables in locked areas and start safeguarding patient information.

"They're just exposing the community's vulnerability," he said.

Calderone also said that there might be instances where offices or schools might not know that they have been hit. "But they might remember something suspicious," he said.

Sheriff's deputies are urging local residents to call 911 to report any suspicious activity. They can also call the West Valley Substation of the Santa Clara Sheriff's Office at 408.868.6600.