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Police: Shoppers chase down 81-year-old's purse snatcher

Surveillance image

Publix video shows a person trying to snatch the purse of Geritrudis Bosch.

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By PETER BERNARD | WFLA

Published: June 16, 2009

Updated: 06/16/2009 10:21 pm

TAMPA - The incident happened in the blink of an eye, but that was long enough for shoppers and Publix employees to react.

Video from a surveillance camera shows a young man taking a long gaze towards an elderly man and woman at the refrigerated food case at the Publix at 2427 West Hillsborough Avenue.

Moments later, the man in the video lunges at the woman's purse, which was in her grocery cart.

The man ran out the front door of the store but several people were right behind him.

One of them was Phillip Blue of Gibsonton, who had stopped into the store to grab some lunch.
"Someone shouted, "He's got her purse,'" Blue said. "And then I turned around and saw the young man running out of the store with a purse."

He threw down his wallet and a handful of quarters and gave chase. Blue said the man tried to hop on a bicycle.

"He went to go pick it up and get on it and when he saw me barreling out of the door he threw the bike down and started running," said Blue. "I jumped over his bike about 3 or 4 parking spaces later, I caught him by the back of the neck. He dropped the purse and and then ran around the back of Publix."

The chase wasn't over. Several Publix employees followed the man.

"They were also relaying information to our dispatch center, which was perfect," said Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis.

Davis said the information from Blue and the grocery store employees allowed them to find the man in the video, who police said is 17-year-old Yoandry Perez of 4211 N. Coolidge Ave., Tampa.

Blue, the shopper turned good Samaritan, said he acted on instinct.

"People think they can get away with stuff like that, and this instance shows that there's people out there willing to stand up," he said.

Perez, who is supposed to be on home detention, is charged with armed robbery because police say he was carrying a knife.

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