These stories rarely make headlines, but it doesn’t make them any less important. Purse snatching is going on in broad daylight in busy stores and parking lots. If you look the other way, some creep will swipe a personal item (wallet, purse, cellphone) out of your hands, or shopping cart. Here are some recent local stories that illustrate the need to always be aware of your surroundings.
Sarah Wells and her sister Becca Henry took their mother, 56-year-old Angie Jeffers out to lunch last week. They chose Olive Garden on Hamilton Place Boulevard in Chattanooga. They met at 1:00 on a Tuesday afternoon, on a bright, sunny day. They had taken two cars, and parked within a few spaces of each other. Sarah came directly from work in her car, while Becca had picked up her mother in the other car. Lunch was great, and at 2:00 they all headed out to their cars.
Sarah describes her mom as “slightly disabled,” with some mobility issues. With bad knees and severe arthritis, she needs a cane for a long walk, but was on her own this day. “I hugged them and said bye,” said Sarah, “and was about to get in my car.” Then she heard a scream. “I knew it was Mom,” she said. “She was screaming horribly, like she had gotten run over.”
“I turned around, and saw this man struggling with her. She was holding on to her purse, and he kept grabbing her by the arm.” She said her sister Becca was also shocked by the screaming. “Becca was getting in the car on the driver’s side, and started screaming too. This guy had come out of nowhere.”
What happened next is an amazing sequence of events that lasted only a couple of minutes, but involves several heroic bystanders. What was Sarah’s first response? “I threw my purse at him,” she said. Why? “It was all I had, and I didn’t have time to think. Then I started running after him.”
Keep in mind, this is happening along a heavily traveled street on a weekday afternoon. There are plenty of people around, entering and leaving nearby businesses. Someone would surely soon see a petite, blonde 30-year-old woman chasing a tall, lanky man all the way from Olive Garden, to El Meson restaurant and beyond. The purse-snatcher had a good head start, but was “he was sort of jogging, not running all that hard.”
She saw a middle-aged couple leaving El Meson, about to get in their car. “I’m pretty loud,” Sarah said. “I’m yelling Help! That man stole my mother’s purse, and it has all her medication in it!” People outside Academy Sports and Old Navy are turning their heads as well. The chase continued into the street. Angela Stoker, who was driving on Hamilton Place Boulevard saw what was going on, and managed to cut him off. He had to dodge her car to keep going. Moments later, a man had caught up with the perpetrator and was holding him down.
It was Dustin Reed, an Army veteran. “I had just dropped off my girlfriend at the Acropolis restaurant, and I saw people chasing this guy. I’m a power lifter, and I figured I could get that purse away from him, so I hit him in the back, knocked him down, and he let go of it.” What did he say? “You don’t want to know,” Dustin said. “Let’s just say he got the worst of it.”
Another hero was the man who had been leaving El Meson. He was also an Army veteran. No one got his name. But he relieved Dustin, keeping the purse-snatcher on the ground, with the help of Sarah, who had now caught up. “I used my knee to help keep him down,” she said.” How did Dustin know the man was a veteran? “He had on the Operation Iraqi Freedom cap, the vest, I could tell. Both of us were trained on what to do.” Several onlookers called police. It took less than five minutes for them to arrive.
Jesse Defries, charged with robbery and assault
The purse-snatcher, identified as Jesse DeFries, was cuffed and taken away by police, “screaming and cursing the whole time,” according to Sarah. He was charged with robbery and assault, and during a court appearance ten days later, it was revealed that there was an outstanding warrant on him. He was taken back to jail, and he might be there for a while.
How’s the victim doing? Angie Jeffers is fine, according to her daughter. “Her wrist is still sore, but that’s all. It taught her a lesson though. She thinks maybe because she has white hair, this guy thought he could steal her purse with no resistance. He found out different, and if he wants to spend more time in jail, that’s his choice. But Mom won’t be carrying her purse in parking lots any more, that’s for sure.”
As for the strangers who came to their rescue, Sarah can only say “thank you.” It turns out the man was unarmed, but they didn’t know it at the time. “I don’t recommend chasing after an attacker, even though I did it, and others followed. It was just a reflex reaction, I was trying to protect my mother, and some great people jumped in to help. I’m glad no one was hurt.”
She concluded, “I know that many witnesses of crime just look the other way, and don’t want to get involved. But these days, you can’t turn a blind eye. Tell people not to be careless, it can happen anywhere to you. We got this one in jail, but there are plenty of others still out there.”
And, have you ever been “purse-pocketed” inside a grocery store? Listen to this story from Susan Gilbreath about her adventures in Walmart on Signal Mountain Road:
“This young couple asked if I would show them the ingredients to make meat loaf. They said they were shopping for his mother. He said his name was Marcus. I shopped around with them for about 10 minutes, then finished my shopping. When I got in line to check out, I had neither my cell phone, nor my debit card. I borrowed the cashier’s phone and attempted canceling both. Verizon disabled the phone immediately. I was successful in contacting Suntrust Fraud when I got home. We reviewed my account and saw a few pending charges at convenience stores and at Burger King. My card had visited KANKU #3, then Hi Tech in 37407 area, then Burger King 37404 area, then Sandy’s Mini Mart 37406 area before getting way out to Walmart in Hixson 37343 where the card had just been declined, twice.
They aren’t all that bright; they’ve been caught. Kudos to the night manager at 153 Walmart. She declined the purchase of a laptop purely on suspicion. Then, they tried again at the register for a $50.00 purchase. Surely, with all this proof, there will be two more “MEAT LOAFERS” off our streets. And if anybody knows the meatloaf duo, I’d like to have my phone back.”
I guess it’s true, no good deed goes unpunished. Here’s this nice lady, showing one of the thieves what to buy to make some good meat loaf, and while she’s distracted, the other half of the team is going through her purse. Remember when you could be nice to folks, and feel good about it? This is America, 2014. Don’t let your guard down.
Folks that are too lazy to work and steal from others make me nauseous. I see elderly folks in the retail business who don’t look physically able to work, they grew up with the understanding that if you don’t work, you don’t eat. The thing that makes me sad, and mad at the same time is the folks doing the stealing are getting money for drugs. I see drugs are one of the things bringing this country down!!!
I want to continue to believe there are more of us than there are of them. Shout out to those who get involved to be sure their bad deeds do not outnumber our willingness to do the right thing.
That is bad. Happens here in Dallas Metro also —even sometimes in the bedroom communities—mostly at malls and stores as you said.Glad that they caught the guy. The first one could possibly have been avoided if Mom had been seated in the car first—-tho he might have gone after the daughter. I an an older lady with a handicap hang tag and I still work in retail—on computer. I park outside the store and am very careful about checking out my car before I go. Usually there are 2 or 3 of us who leave at the same time. When my sons or daughters take me out they always put me in the car first–and, LOL! make sure I have my seat belt on! Have always been independent and go wherever without worrying about it—-but—todays times are different—and I NEVER park in a parking garage—that is definitely a bad choice!! Too easy to be grabbed! Keep telling it like it is!! Love your posts!!!
Great advice AJ…and thank you!