nwilliams
Member
Just saw this in my local paper
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local News/Tight-grip--good-aim-keeps-purse-safe
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local News/Tight-grip--good-aim-keeps-purse-safe
Tight grip, good aim keep purse safe
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Jane Phillips/The New Mexican
Photo: Bernie Garcia, 83, says she fended off a would-be mugger Wednesday who tried to snatch her purse at a Santa Fe gas station. The alleged thief and two others were later arrested after witnesses took down the license plate number of the car they were driving.
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Police arrest three after woman, 83, takes on would-be mugger
Jason Auslander | The New Mexican
3/13/2008 - 3/14/08
Though he was a bit rough-looking, 83-year-old Bernie Garcia thought the young man who approached her Wednesday evening as she finished gassing up her van on Cerrillos Road seemed a decent sort.
"I thought, 'What a sweet guy' at first when he asked me for money," the Santa Fe great-grandmother said Thursday in a telephone interview. "For me, I don't judge anybody."
Garcia told the man — who had a goatee and several tattoos — she'd just spent all her spare money on gas and had none to give him. But instead of taking no for an answer and walking away, the man grabbed Garcia's purse and tried to snatch it away, she said.
"But I had it wrapped around my wrist twice," Garcia said.
Because of that, the man was unable to wrestle it from her grasp, she said. Garcia then discovered she still had the gas pump in her hand, so she swung it at the man and sprayed a bit of gas on his shirt. But the man kept ahold of Garcia's purse, pulled her to the ground and dragged her along the pavement a short distance until another man who was getting gas at the Smith's grocery store came forward, Garcia said.
"He went up to (the assailant) and said, 'Turn her loose you something something,' " Garcia said.
The would-be mugger then fled in a nearby vehicle, though the wife of the man who came to her aid got the vehicle's description and license number, she said.
"Let me tell you, where that strength (to hold on to the purse) came from, I don't know," Garcia said. "The good Lord (maybe), I don't know. My health is not that good."
Garcia said she felt fine after the incident occurred, and police said she declined medical treatment at the scene. However, after she got home, Garcia said she began sweating and feeling faint and went almost immediately to bed. Then she woke up Thursday morning and really felt the effects of her ordeal.
"This morning, I couldn't move," said Garcia, whose son, a former firefighter, checked her for broken bones and found none.
Garcia admitted she could have been seriously hurt, or worse, but is glad she stood her ground.
"My son said, 'Why didn't you just give (the purse) up?' " Garcia said. " 'Hell no,' I told him. That was my purse. I was fighting for what was mine."
Three minutes after a witness phoned in the mugger's vehicle description and license plate, police stopped a 1989 Oldsmobile Cutlass — which turned out to have been stolen from Española — on U.S. 84/285, said Santa Fe Deputy Police Chief Aric Wheeler. Garcia and an eyewitness both identified one of the men inside as the alleged attacker and the others riding with him as those who were waiting in the car at the time of the attack, he said.
Angelo Trujillo, 20, of Chimayó was identified as the man who tried to snatch Garcia's purse, and was charged with robbery and conspiracy, Wheeler said. Trujillo was charged with aggravated battery with a deadly weapon and two counts of larceny in January in Los Alamos District Court for an incident that occurred in October, according to online court records.
Also arrested were Jody Martinez, 28, of Truchas, who was charged with robbery and conspiracy, and Julian Romero, 27, of Cordova, who was charged with robbery, conspiracy and concealing his identity, he said. Romero has a lengthy criminal history, mainly theft charges, according to online court records. He is set for trial in Rio Arriba County District Court in May on charges of burglary and larceny, and was charged in November in the same court with aggravated burglary and possession of burglary tools for another incident, records say.
"They got caught and I'm so glad," Garcia said. "We have some good people in Santa Fe. We have the best police force in the world."
