HOUSTON – In just a matter of seconds, the backseat passenger of a silver sedan was able to get out, smash a window and steal a purse that was left sitting on the front seat of another car.
The owner of the purse had just gone into the gas station to pay for her gas, but when she came out, she realized what had happened.
"I never leave my purse," Beverly Hart said.
Hart said it had been a bad day. Her head was in a fog.
Her mother was in the hospital, the air conditioner at her home broke and the day before would have been her late husband's 78th birthday.
"When my husband passed, I was heartbroken," Hart said.
That's what's making the burglary even harder. Inside her tan Michael Kors purse was a wallet, credit cards and her phone.
But there was also a bracelet.
Her husband, Freddie, bought it for her birthday, but passed away before he was ever able to give it to her.
Beverly found it, along with some earrings and a card, about a year after he died.
"I finally got the nerve to clean out the closet, and that's when I found it," she said. "That's what makes it so much more special to me."
Her wedding band, her husband’s wedding band and two gold chains were also in the purse but Hart says the bracelet is most sentimental to her.
The theft happened at the Valero station on the corner of Reveille and Park Place in southeast Houston.
The thieves were in a large silver sedan, and now, police are investigating.
Hart is hoping someone will recognize the suspect’s vehicle from the surveillance video or the thieves themselves will hear about her story and have a change of heart.
"I'm pleading with whoever took it to just send that back. That would just mean the world to me," Hart said. "I would really love for you all to send the bracelet back to me.”