Grandmother Shouts Down Would-Be Purse-Snatcher in Surprise Encounter

What started out as a family shopping trip in Wauwatosa ended in a shocking encounter with a thief for a Delafield woman and her grandson.

The thief was rather shocked, too, fleeing without the purse he intended to grab out of a car when the woman yelled at him – from the back seat.

According to the police report:

The woman called police at 2:07 p.m. Friday to say that while she was with family members shopping at , 2265 N. Mayfair Rd., a man entered their car and tried to steal her daughter’s purse.

She said that she was out with her husband, daughter and grandson, and that her husband and daughter had gone into the store while she and her grandson waited in the back seat.

Her daughter, who had been driving, left the car running and accidentally failed to lock the doors.

The woman said that a car pulled up next to theirs in a handicapped spot and the driver got out, came around to the passenger side, then got back in and left.

Five minutes or so later, the same car returned and the driver again got out, walked around to her daughter’s car, opened the driver's door and got in.

She said he appeared surprised to see her and her grandson sitting in the back seat.

He grabbed for the daughter’s purse, which was on the front passenger’s seat, but the woman yelled at him and he fled.

She could describe the suspect only as a black man with a dark complexion in his mid-20s, and that he had dreadlocks, but said she thought she would recognize him if she saw him again.

She said the car was a white two-door, possibly an Oldsmobile. She did not get a license number.

Because of the circumstances, were investigating the crime not just as an attempted theft from a vehicle but as an attempted strong-arm robbery – a considerably more serious charge if the perpetrator is found and arrested.

Another entry to vehicle was reported in the same parking lot, the report said.