HOUSTON – There have been three brazen purse snatchings within the last month in Houston.
The latest victim was dining in the food court at the Galleria Wednesay night.
Sheila Sampson said that around 8 p.m., just as she and a friend were sitting down to eat, she felt someone bump her from behind. At first she just thought someone had accidentally knocked her purse off the chair, but she quickly realized she was being robbed.
"A person came behind me, hit me from the back. I thought somebody just bumped me and next thing I know, it was like I realized I was being robbed. So I began to run out the doors. He jumped into a moving vehicle and they proceeded to drive out of the Galleria garage," said Sampson.
Sampson said she had more than $1,000 worth of property in her designer bag, including her cellphone and a digital camera.
Similar, but not linked, snatchings have taken place around Houston.
On Aug. 6, a woman had her purse snatched in a League City CVS parking lot. That suspect led police on a chase and was arrested.
Last month, on July 27, a woman dining at the Memorial City Mall had her purse snatched. A good Samaritan was run over when he tried stopping the thieves by jumping through the suspect's car window.
Sampson, who never thought this could happen to her, said she is shaken up.
"It was very well planned. I'm a person that's very cautious over my surroundings. I never would have thought that I would've been robbed just in a food court," said Sampson.