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Video: Grandmother Chases Down Purse Snatcher
NBC 13 ^ | 3/3/2009 | NBC 13

Posted on 03/03/2009 12:27:27 PM PST by Dallas59



A 65-year-old Texas grandmother says she chased down a man who had just snatched her purse, hit him with her car and held him until police arrived.

“I was madder than hell is what I was,“ Val Renfro said. “I didn’t think about anything else except, ‘He’s not going to get away with this.‘“

Renfro had just finished shopping at Office Depot in East Fort Worth on Sunday afternoon and was getting in her car when Ricky Lee Sample stole her purse.

“The next thing I know, somebody just blindsided me,“ Renfro said.

She grabbed her cell phone, which she carries in her bra, and called 911 as he fled.

“Someone just grabbed my purse out of the car,“ she told the operator. “I’m going to chase him down.“

Renfro said she got in her car and screeched out of the parking lot.

She spotted the man in front of a nearby movie theater.

Her confrontation with the man was recorded in her 911 call.

“Where’s my purse?“ she yelled. “You give it to me now. I got the police on the phone right now. You give me my purse.“

Sample tried to walk away.

“And I thought, ‘I’m going to lose this man, and the police aren’t here,‘“ Renfro said. “So he got right in front of my right fender, and I just pushed on the gas.“

She said he flipped up in the air.

“I hit him,“ she told the 911 operator.

Sample kept running, she said.

Like a scene out of a movie, customers leaving the theater joined in the chase.

“Now there’s others chasing him,“ Renfro told the 911 operator.

Jason Hughes, who was at the movie theater, said it was “pretty crazy.“

“When somebody says she just got robbed, and you see a guy running at you with a purse, it’s kind of like the first reaction,“ he said.

Several other people also joined in and corralled the man.

“They’ve got him,“ an excited Renfro told the operator.

Police arrived minutes later and arrested Sample in connection with the theft.

Sample, 47, has previously been convicted of thefts, burglaries and drug possession.

“I’m lucky,“ Renfro said. “I’m very, very lucky that no one was hurt and that I got my purse back.“

Later, when she saw the man again outside the police station on his way to jail, he apologized, Renfro said.

“Apology accepted,“ she replied. “God bless you.“


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: fortworth; purse; snatcher; texas
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Go Grandma!

Linky To Video
1 posted on 03/03/2009 12:27:27 PM PST by Dallas59
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To: Dallas59

Ha ha! Cool story. He apologized.


2 posted on 03/03/2009 12:30:45 PM PST by Retired Greyhound
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To: Dallas59

Don’t Mess With Grandma! If you do, suffer the consequences!


3 posted on 03/03/2009 12:30:55 PM PST by txnativegop (God Bless America! (NRA-Endowment))
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To: Dallas59

You go, girl!


4 posted on 03/03/2009 12:31:20 PM PST by pax_et_bonum (God Bless America)
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To: Dallas59

And only a TX granny would keep her phone in her bra.


5 posted on 03/03/2009 12:31:45 PM PST by Retired Greyhound
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To: Dallas59

Good conservative Ft Worth Texas woman. Won’t take sh$$ from anyone. I’m sure she has a sidearm as well.


6 posted on 03/03/2009 12:31:52 PM PST by albie
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To: Dallas59
She grabbed her cell phone, which she carries in her bra, and called 911 as he fled.

Excuse me?

I can see this happening....

"Hey. That lady's boobs are ringing!"

7 posted on 03/03/2009 12:34:04 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: Retired Greyhound

perp’s lucky she didn’t have a pearl handled .45 in there too.


8 posted on 03/03/2009 12:35:26 PM PST by absolootezer0 (thank God for Chicago: makes Detroit look wholesome by comparison.)
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To: Dallas59

Can you legally hit someone with a car in Texas?


9 posted on 03/03/2009 12:38:19 PM PST by John123 (The US may be going down the drain, but everyone else will drown first...)
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To: Dallas59

Pretty feisty.


10 posted on 03/03/2009 12:40:19 PM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: John123

He needed hittin’. Legal defense.


11 posted on 03/03/2009 12:43:20 PM PST by doodad
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To: John123

If the police decide to lose the paperwork about it, you can.


12 posted on 03/03/2009 12:43:51 PM PST by GovernmentShrinker
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To: absolootezer0

They aren’t pearl they are IVORY!!!!!!


13 posted on 03/03/2009 12:57:47 PM PST by murrie (For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son..........)
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To: Dallas59

Thanks.

I love a happy ending.


14 posted on 03/03/2009 12:59:21 PM PST by Califreak (1/20/13-Sunrise in America)
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To: John123; xsmommy
Can you legally hit someone with a car in Texas?

You can always use the Clara Harris defense.

15 posted on 03/03/2009 1:00:53 PM PST by VRWCmember
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To: albie
"Good conservative Ft Worth Texas woman."

That's why she looks great for 65!

16 posted on 03/03/2009 1:02:52 PM PST by Chronically aghast in Florida (Thanks Mom (for not being a hippie chick)
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To: VRWCmember

pobre clarita, when does she get out?


17 posted on 03/03/2009 1:02:54 PM PST by xsmommy
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To: Dallas59

Good job Grandma, you are made of the right stuff.


18 posted on 03/03/2009 1:03:02 PM PST by Phemone
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To: Dallas59

LOL!!!!!

Don’t mess with Gramma’s!!


19 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:24 PM PST by Brad’s Gramma ( PRAY! Pray for the U.S. Pray for Israel.)
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To: VRWCmember
She grabbed her cell phone, which she carries in her bra,

LOL!

20 posted on 03/03/2009 1:04:38 PM PST by xsmommy
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