The mayor of Unalaska, Alaska--home of the Dutch Harbor fishing port featured on the Discovery Channel series “The Deadliest Catch”--was victimized by two thieves on a South Shore commuter train on Sunday, NICTD Transit Police said.

But her suspicions prompted her to contact the conductor, Transit Police detectives were called to the scene, and two Illinois women have been jailed in Chicago on a charge of theft, Transit Police Chief Bob Byrd told the Chesterton Tribune today.

The incident began late in the afternoon in a rear passenger car on the South Bend-Chicago train, Byrd said, occupied by Unalaska Mayor Shirley Marquardt and three members of her family as well as by the suspects, identified as Ashlee Williams, 20, of Chicago, and Earlines Crowder, 19, of Joliet.

Williams and Crowder were sitting behind Marquardt and her family, Byrd said, and on two occasions Marquardt observed one of the suspects walk past her to the restroom.

She became suspicious and subsequently discovered that her wallet and her son’s wallet--containing a total of $1,300 in cash--were missing from her purse on the floor of the train, Byrd said.

Marquardt contacted the conductor, the conductor contacted the Transit Police, and at 6:30 p.m. at the Hegewisch station all six were taken off the train, Byrd said.

In a preliminary search of the suspects, a loaded unpermitted handgun was found in one of Williams’ pockets and 10 rounds of ammunition in the other, while four $100 bills were found concealed in Crowder’s hair weave, Byrd said.

Williams, a felon with a 2006 robbery conviction in Illinois, was charged with theft, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and unauthorized use of a weapon, Byrd said, Crowder was charged with theft, and both were transported to the Chicago Police Department’s Fourth District lockup.

Meanwhile, Cpl. Marc Premil of the Transit Police took charge of the investigation at the Millennium Station, where Marquardt’s wallet was found in an empty Doritos bag in the train car’s restroom, Byrd said.