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Police: Women Cut By Thief Outside St. Pete Laundromat

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By STEPHEN THOMPSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 6, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Two women were cut by a thief outside a laundromat Saturday night as they tried to wrestle away from him a purse he had just stolen from one of them, St. Petersburg police said.

The injuries received during the 10:30 p.m. incident were not life-threatening, St. Petersburg police spokesman George Kajtsa said. The women's names are not being released because the thief has not been identified or arrested.

One of the women, a 32-year-old, had just gotten out of her car to get a soda from a machine inside the laundromat, at 1602 31st Ave. N., with her 12-year-old daughter in the car, Kajtsa said.

As the woman was putting the change into the machine, a man walked around her not saying anything, Kajtsa said. Within seconds, she heard her daughter scream and saw the man running away with her purse, which had been left in her car, the spokesman said.

The victim, with a 43-year-old woman coming to her aid, ran after the man and struggled with him over the purse, Kajtsa said.

When the purse fell to the ground, the thief pulled out a knife with a 1 1/2-inch blade and started swinging it at the women, cutting the 32-year-old in the arm and the 43-year-old in the upper body, Kajtsa said.

He then reached down and grabbed roughly $300 in cash that had fallen out of the purse and ran, Kajtsa said.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336.

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