COVINA — A good Samaritan retrieved a woman’s purse from a thief Sunday, but didn’t hang around to take credit, police said.
A 63-year-old woman was loading items into her car in the parking lot of Wal-Mart, 1275 N. Azusa Avenue, when a young man ran by and snatched her purse from her shopping cart, Covina police Lt. Tim Doonan said. He then ran to a nearby car.
“Within a few seconds of this happening, a good Samaritan obviously sees what happened, follows the suspects to the car, confronts the suspect, retrieves the victims property, returns the property to the victim and disappears,” Doonan said. He did not stay around to speak with police.
The woman told officers that nothing was missing from her purse.
A second witness was able to provide police with a description of the suspect and his car, the lieutenant said.
The thief was a white man of about 20 years old, of thin build, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, with brown spiked hair, police said. He wore a gray T-shirt and black short, and drove off in a car described as a 2000-model, white, four-door sedan.