Brazen purse thief - long

[MournBlade]

I know the economy is getting bad but I thought it wasn't quite so bad here in Windsor Canada yet...

A few weeks ago I was unloading my car and putting things in my father in laws garage next to his shop. My lovely pregnant wife was helping me. We finished up closed the doors and were waiting in the parking lot maybe 15 feet from our car.

Someone down the alley shouts "are you missing anything" I find this quite odd and ask why he would say that. He points out some black kid just took off running down the alley past his garden after being near my car.

I look in the front seat and my heart sinks - my wifes purse is gone. I start running down the alley hoping to find at least the emptied purse, I had no idea how much head start the guy had on me.

A few hundred feet down the alley I see a lady taking things out of the back door to a restaurant and ask her if she has seen anyone run by here - she says no and I take off again. I pass another closed off doorway and see some motion in the doorway coming up. Then I see a black kid crouched in the doorway - without thinking I yell "what the hell are you doing with my wifes purse?"

Any doubts that this was not the thief evaporate immediatly when he jumps up and takes off like a jackrabbit. I chase the guy to the end of the alley and around a corner, my adrenaline is off the charts but having some nasty lung crud / infection is making it very hard to breathe. His left fist is balled up and I think he might have my wifes credit cards so I keep after him for another hundred feet or so. At this point I'm seeing stars and slow to a walk - I yell "keep on running chicken shit" and decide its probably a good idea to get back to the purse before some other jackal gets ideas.

As I am walking back I start laughing - the kid had better motivation for running than I did. Having a pissed off 6"4" 280 pound guy appear out of nowhere right on top of you must be shit your pants scary to a twig skinny kid. Luckily I scared him enough he left his "keep" pile in the doorway. My wifes credit cards, our gps and other valuables were in a pile on top of an xbox game that was either his or stolen from someone else - everything else was thrown all over.

I was walking back to the parking lot and a police cruiser pulled up behind me - I told him everything I remembered like where the kid was headed. For the life of me I could not remember what he was wearing all I knew was he was shorter than me, with short hair and black. They had 4 other cars in the area and luckily the neighbor remembered what he was wearing. From what the officer said he was about to be caught in a park nearby when we were wrapping things up.

Normally cops wont show up that fast for a purse theft - I guess when my wife mentioned I was chasing the guy that made it a higher priority. Thank God nothing was missing and luckily my wife had just put all her change and loose cash in our change bucket on the dresser.

I'm kind of glad I didn't catch the guy - I don't like fighting and everything turned out ok. Freaky how the one time my wife leaves her purse in the car some dude tries to steal it from out under our noses - without that awesome neighbor he would have. From now on we lock our doors no matter what. Phew

[Lyse]

Sadly, there is always a small percentage of people that would rather steal than earn regardless of what the economy is like. So glad that you caught up with him and were able to get your wife's things back. Canceling cards and replacing items is expensive, but if she is like me then she also carrying a bit of sentimental items as well.

[Slayer]

Really glad that worked out for you and your wife in the end. Having to replace all that information is not fun. I had my purse stolen while at work about 4 years ago. Took a couple of weeks and money I didn't have to get all my cards reissued. 3 days of not being able to drive was torture, too.

Always lock your doors. I even make sure they're locked when I'm gassing up my car since I can't see if there's someone opening the passenger door to steal something. It sounds stupid, but I'd rather not go through the hassle again.

[LillFilly]

I'm glad you recovered all your property and that nobody was hurt; hope they caught the kid.

You reminded me of a woman at one of our stores that came back saying she thought she might have left her purse in her shopping cart and had anyone turned it in. Nobody had, but we checked the parking lot footage and saw her loading her groceries, getting in her car and driving away, but leaving her purse in the kid seat of the cart. The cart slowly rolled into the next parking spot next to a minivan. A middle-aged couple walked-out to the minivan, pushed the cart away, started loading their groceries....Then the man saw the purse, looked around, grabbed it and tossed it into the van and they left Couldn't get a plate off the camera, but by looking at the couple we were able to find them on camera at the register they checked-out at, and guess what? They paid by credit card The Police went to talk to them.

[bhskittykatt]

Glad you recovered everything. I recently had my car smashed into with my purse, backpack, and suitcase stolen...replacing all that stuff was NOT fun!

Glad you also didn't have to fight the kid. Hopefully you made him sh*t his pants, though!

[Racket_Man]

we had sort of the same thing happen to a driver. he had to park his car to call a customer as they had given an incorrect address. the driver set the delivery bag on his trunk and turned to get his phone out. within 2 seconds some punk kids grabbed the bag and tried to run off with it.

luckly he saw them in time and yelled at them. the punks dropped the bag and ran off.