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Woman hurt in fight for her purse

The 78-year-old victim was dragged by a purse snatcher in a car. She faces weeks of rehabilitation.

By ROBIN STEIN and DOUGLAS R. CLIFFORD
Published November 8, 2005

TARPON SPRINGS - In retrospect, she should have let it go. It was only $14. But in the heat of the moment, she thought she could catch him.

When Mona C. Miller, 78, emerged from Publix with a cartful of groceries Saturday afternoon, she was certainly not expecting to face off with a brazen purse snatcher.

It was 4:30 p.m and the parking lot at Tarpon Mall was buzzing with weekend shoppers.

"We were putting the last couple bags in the trunk," said Kori Keyser, the 16-year-old bagging clerk who had accompanied Miller, a retired medical assistant from Holiday, to her car. "And suddenly we heard this loud screech."

A green Kia sedan pulled up behind them, a man jumped out, and grabbed Miller's purse from the shopping cart.

"I went after him," reaching through the open driver's side window for her purse, Miller said.

"I was screaming at her, "Let him have it, let him have it,"' Keyser said. "But the next thing I knew she was being dragged."

The man flung the purse to the passenger seat, and, according to Keyser, without a word or a pause, hit the gas with Miller still clinging to the door.

"I thought if I could get ahold of the wheel, I could stop him," Miller said.

Miller held on and was dragged for about 10 to 15 feet, ending up with a fractured pelvis and nasty abrasions.

Miller was taken to Helen Ellis Memorial Hospital in Tarpon Springs, where she remained Monday. Doctors expect to transfer her Wednesday to a transitional unit, where she will undergo six to eight weeks of rehabilitation, said her daughter, Wanda J. Alderman, 58, of Holiday.

The man got away with the purse and its contents: credit cards, pictures, an appointment book, an address book and $14 in cash, Miller said.

Before Miller could cancel the cards, someone used one to charge $150 at JC Penney's, said Alderman.

Sgt. Jim Young, a spokesman for the Tarpon Springs Police Department, said no similar purse-snatching incidents have been reported recently. The investigation is ongoing.

Alderman said police told her a check on the license plate of the green Kia indicated the car may have been stolen.

Keyser and Miller both said they were still shaken Monday afternoon.

"I can't sleep because every time I close my eyes I see the man," said Keyser, who plans to get counseling from a victim's advocate.

Alderman said her mother is also very afraid. "She felt like he had stalked her, picked her out as a target," she said.

Only the groceries made it through the episode unscathed. Publix employees retrieved the bags from the trunk, Alderman said, and stored the food in a cooler until Miller's son picked the bags up the next day. While Miller will probably not be be cooking much right now, Alderman said she knows her mother will be grocery shopping again soon.

"She'll go back," she said. "It's her favorite store."

[Last modified November 8, 2005, 02:15:36]