mike honcho
Knuckleheads
Purse-snatcher nabbed by 65-year-old Arlington woman 11:31 AM CT
11:57 AM CST on Tuesday, March 3, 2009
By SARAH PERRY / The Dallas Morning News
Val Renfro didn’t think twice Sunday when she chased down the man who snatched her purse.
The 65-year-old Arlington grandmother was getting into her car outside an Office Depot on Eastchase Parkway when Ricky Lee Sample, 47, came up from behind and shoved her, according to police reports.
She wrestled him outside the car. He pushed her down and ran away with her purse, she said.
She immediately grabbed her phone, which she keeps in her bra for such situations, and dialed 911.
"Somebody just grabbed my purse out of my car,” she told the operator.
“I’m going to chase him down.”
Renfro careened her silver Buick Park Avenue out of the parking lot toward the nearby UA Eastchase Market 9 theater. There, she spotted the thief, a 5-foot-9-inch man in jeans and a hooded shirt.
She rolled down her window, just enough so he could hear her, and angrily shouted, “Where’s my purse? You put it on the hood, now. Give me my purse before I run you over.”
Sample didn’t put her purse on the hood. She accelerated. She hit him. But he kept running east toward Ederville Road.
Horns were blaring all round her, and Renfro saw citizens from the cinema chasing Sample. Six or seven men finally circled and contained him.
Renfro parked her car and walked up to him. The 911 tapes caught this:
Sample: “I don’t have nothing."
Renfro: “Like hell you don’t."
Before Renfro hung up with the dispatcher, she found her purse and checked its contents. The $300 in cash she had was still there.
Police were on their way. When they arrived, they arrested Sample.
Renfro said in an interview that when Sample shoved her, she just reacted. Her adrenaline was pumping, and it was “a natural thing to do.”
She’s thankful now that she carries her phone on her body at all times. And she’s tired of women being picked on.
"He didn’t count on me following up." she said.
Renfro doesn’t advise other women to react like she did. (And police will tell you that the safest thing to do is to let a purse snatcher have the purse.)
But she does have a message: Be aware of danger and take self-defense courses so you can protect yourself.
Finally, she thanked everyone who helped her, police and citizens alike.
“Somebody told me chivalry is still alive in Texas, but it’s not chivalry,” she said. “It’s good citizens who do the right thing."
11:57 AM CST on Tuesday, March 3, 2009
By SARAH PERRY / The Dallas Morning News
Val Renfro didn’t think twice Sunday when she chased down the man who snatched her purse.
The 65-year-old Arlington grandmother was getting into her car outside an Office Depot on Eastchase Parkway when Ricky Lee Sample, 47, came up from behind and shoved her, according to police reports.
She wrestled him outside the car. He pushed her down and ran away with her purse, she said.
She immediately grabbed her phone, which she keeps in her bra for such situations, and dialed 911.
"Somebody just grabbed my purse out of my car,” she told the operator.
“I’m going to chase him down.”
Renfro careened her silver Buick Park Avenue out of the parking lot toward the nearby UA Eastchase Market 9 theater. There, she spotted the thief, a 5-foot-9-inch man in jeans and a hooded shirt.
She rolled down her window, just enough so he could hear her, and angrily shouted, “Where’s my purse? You put it on the hood, now. Give me my purse before I run you over.”
Sample didn’t put her purse on the hood. She accelerated. She hit him. But he kept running east toward Ederville Road.
Horns were blaring all round her, and Renfro saw citizens from the cinema chasing Sample. Six or seven men finally circled and contained him.
Renfro parked her car and walked up to him. The 911 tapes caught this:
Sample: “I don’t have nothing."
Renfro: “Like hell you don’t."
Before Renfro hung up with the dispatcher, she found her purse and checked its contents. The $300 in cash she had was still there.
Police were on their way. When they arrived, they arrested Sample.
Renfro said in an interview that when Sample shoved her, she just reacted. Her adrenaline was pumping, and it was “a natural thing to do.”
She’s thankful now that she carries her phone on her body at all times. And she’s tired of women being picked on.
"He didn’t count on me following up." she said.
Renfro doesn’t advise other women to react like she did. (And police will tell you that the safest thing to do is to let a purse snatcher have the purse.)
But she does have a message: Be aware of danger and take self-defense courses so you can protect yourself.
Finally, she thanked everyone who helped her, police and citizens alike.
“Somebody told me chivalry is still alive in Texas, but it’s not chivalry,” she said. “It’s good citizens who do the right thing."