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Purse snatchings hit 2 suburbs
Liberty and Boardman police are investigating similar tactics in the crimes.
LIBERTY — Police in two local townships are looking for the person responsible for snatching purses off the shoulders of female shoppers from his car window.
A 21-year-old woman told police she was leaving a grocery store in the 3000 block of Belmont Avenue just after noon Saturday with a cart full of groceries and a young child sitting in the cart.
The woman said she was loading the groceries from the cart into her car when a man in a dark, older Oldsmobile pulled alongside her and snatched her purse off her shoulders.
The man, she said, did not leave the car and sped off with the purse after the strap broke.
Police said the afternoon purse snatching closely resembled an attempted purse snatching that same morning.
According to police reports, a 52-year-old Girard woman was leaving a grocery store in the 4000 block of Belmont Avenue at 11:20 a.m. with her son and 3-year-old granddaughter when she felt something brush up against her.
The woman told police the brushing the she felt was a man hanging out of a car, that had pulled alongside her as she walked, trying to snatch her purse off her shoulder.
The man failed to get the purse off the woman’s shoulder and sped out of the parking lot.
Liberty Township Police Chief Anthony Slifka said police believe the same man is responsible for the attempted purse snatching and the actual snatching. Police in other jurisdictions are investigating similar cases.
Boardman police are investigating two purse snatchings reported at township businesses.
A 40-year-old woman told police she was at Rulli Brothers, South Avenue, about 2 p.m. Saturday, loading groceries into her car. A car drove by and the driver reached out through the car window and grabbed her purse. The straps of the purse were around her arms and the woman was dragged about 60 feet through the store’s parking lot.
When the woman lost her grip on the purse, the car left the lot onto Mathews Road.
On Sunday, a 64-year-old woman told police she was at Marc’s, Tiffany Boulevard, about 3:20 p.m., walking to her car when a dark-colored car drove by and a man reached out and pulled her purse from her arm. The car then left the lot, headed south on Tiffany.
Slifka said crimes of opportunity will likely increase with the coming warm weather. He said shoppers and the stores in which they shop will need to be vigilant in preventing such crime.
“One thing we are asking is that stores put surveillance cameras up. That would definitely help us out,” said Slifka.
“If people are out there they need to be more cautious of their surroundings. Sometimes people get caught up in day dreaming or whatever, and that is when someone is going to try and take advantage of you. People need to remember that.”