$500 Designer Purse Stolen After Woman Leaves Bank

The victim of a Norcross-area robbery told police that she put up a fight when a man tried to snatch her Coach purse from her when she exited the bank.

According to the Gwinnett County Police report, the incident occurred around 4 p.m. on a recent Wednesday at the Chase bank, located at 1250 Tech Drive in unincorporated Norcross.

The woman, 58, told police that she was existing the bank and walking in the parking lot back to her car, where her husband was. As she neared the first couple of parked cars, a man walked up to her from behind and stabbed her with something "very hard" in the left side of the rib cage.

After causing her shirt to rip and some bruising, he grabbed the victim's $500 designer bag, so she started fighting back. The two battled for some time, but he eventually was able to get the purse from her. He fled on foot through the parking lot and jumped into the bed of a pickup truck, which exited onto Indian Trail Road.

The man told police that he only noticed the robbery when his wife started screaming and yelling. When the suspect fled, the husband chased after him, but he was not able to catch up.

The woman was treated for superficial wounds in the parking lot and released on scene. She told police that her Coach purse held a leather weather, credit cards, driver's license, social security card, cell phone and $600 cash.

Authorities attempted to locate the phone through T-Mobile, but tracking was not possible because the phone had been shut off.

A witness called police later that evening to inform them that his family had actually seen the incident happen and they had been parked next to the getaway car. His wife and children, including an 11-year-old Meadowcreek Elementary student, were in the car when they saw the victim getting robbed and the suspect jumping into the pickup next to them.

The victim and witnesses told police that the suspect was a brown-haired white or Hispanic male who was between the ages of 25 and 33. He was 5'7" to 5'9", 150 to 170 pounds, and clean shaven. He wore blue studded earrings in both ears, blue jeans, black Converse sneakers, and either a long-sleeved red-checkered shirt or a black hooded sweatshirt.

The driver of the pickup was described as being a white male, 25 to 33 years old, and light brown to blond hair. He was clean shaven and wore a backwards baseball hat and a black hooded sweatshirt. The pickup truck was an older model two-door Toyota Tacoma that was either black or dark green.

Inside the Police Reports runs regularly every week. The information is based solely on police incident reports provided on request.

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