Purse snatcher strikes shoppers again in Boardman

Staff report

BOARDMAN

Police say a purse snatcher preying on township shoppers has struck again.

A 24-year-old Struthers woman who was shopping at Aldi, 6131 South Ave., around 8 p.m. Wednesday told police a woman tried to steal her purse containing $40 and her debit card, according to reports. Police said the suspect was described as a white woman in her 40s, around 6 feet tall and 225 pounds, who was wearing glasses, a purple coat, fuzzy hat and a large amount of makeup.

The Struthers woman said she was handing the suspect a divider bar while checking out when she grabbed her purse out of the buggy and ran out of the store before being confronted by a store employee. The employee struggled with the suspect and retrieved the purse, but the woman fled to the passenger seat of a Ford pickup truck, police said.

The employee told officers that she believes this is the same person who stole a purse from a mother and daughter shopping in Aldi earlier this year.

Twenty minutes later, police were called to Marc’s, 7121 Tiffany Blvd., where a 51-year-old Pennsylvania woman told them a suspect matching the same description snatched her purse — with her wallet, checkbook and wedding bands inside, according to reports.

Although several Marc’s customers chased her, the woman escaped and climbed into a Ford pickup truck that fled east on U.S. Route 224.

Anyone with information is asked to call Boardman police.