handbag snatching

Hi there

Isn't it sad about the good samaritan mum of six kids, the one that went to the aid of an elderly woman who was having her handbag snatched outside an Auckland supermarket this week?  The good samaritan mum was punched to the ground, hit her head on the pavement and was rushed to hospital with brain damage and a fractured skull.  The offender, a youth of 17 years, has been caught, thanks to video surveillance and reports from the public.

I had my shoulder bag snatched about ten years ago.  I was wandering through Miramar happily thinking about the joys of the lovely weather, the strap of my bag dangling casually from one shoulder.  Suddenly my bag was snatched by a youth who had come up behind me.  He raced away.

Thank goodness I was in trainers, with no plantar fasciitis and visited the gym practically every day.   I raced after him, shouting "Stop thief".  As I was running, I did think shouting "Stop, thief" was a bit naff because no thief, surely, would stop just because I was asking him to.  So, I changed the shouts to "Stop the thief!".

He raced around the corner and I did, too.  We must have run about 400 metres.  Then a car pulled up alongside the thief and he hurtled into it.

I stopped running, exhausted.  Oh, no, my credit cards and bank details were in my bag-

But then a car came zooming down the road chasing the thief's vehicle, with horn honking frantically.  The car was driven by a young woman, with a child in the back.  She had heard my cries.

The two cars turned a corner, but within minutes the woman drove back ... waving my shoulder bag out of her open window.  The thief had chucked it out of his car.

"I gestured to the driver that I had their licence number," the woman told me.  "So they threw out the bag to make me stop and pick it up.  They sped away."

A woman who lived in the street had called the police.  Long story short, there was enough evidence to leisurely arrest the thief.  He got community service.   I went along to the court date and did a lot of glaring at the offender.  And, today I always wear the strap of my bag across my chest.

I now know for a fact that good samaritans can pop up anywhere ....