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Purse-snatching try hurts elderly woman
By JAMIE JONES, Times Staff Writer BROOKSVILLE -- A 79-year-old woman may have life-threatening injuries after being dragged behind a car by a man who tried to steal her purse outside the Wal-Mart Supercenter Wednesday afternoon, authorities said. The woman, who was not identified by authorities late Wednesday, seemed to have only minor cuts and bruises, but doctors at Spring Hill Regional Hospital later said she might have a skull fracture, said Lt. Joe Paez of the Sheriff's Office. She was then flown to Tampa General Hospital. A man leaned out the window of a purple Dodge Neon and tried to steal the woman's purse at about 1:45 p.m. in the crowded parking lot. The purse apparently did not come off her arm. She fell, hit her head and was pulled across the pavement, Paez said. The same man tried to take another woman's purse across the street moments earlier, investigators said. Sheriff's deputies received a call from a woman who said she was in the parking lot of nearby Western Way Plaza when she saw a man leaning out of a purple car. She thought he might try to take her purse, so she got into her car, drove home and called the Sheriff's Office, Paez said. Witnesses said two men in their late teens or early 20s, with facial hair, were in the car. One wore a Tampa Bay Buccaneers ball cap, authorities said. A woman may have been a passenger, Paez said. Authorities said the car had graphics on its side and no tag. Anyone with information is asked to call the Sheriff's Office at 754-6830.
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From today's Hernando Times |
