A 17-year-old girl who police said punched a woman from behind and stole her purse on Waverley Street on Saturday night was arrested seconds later a block away from the crime.
Police said the victim, a woman in her 40s, was walking south on Waverley Street, between Forest and Homer avenues, shortly before 10 p.m. at the time of the assault. The attacker, a 17-year-old girl from East Palo Alto whose identity police are not releasing, ran up from behind the victim, punched her in the back of the head, pushed her to the ground and pulled her purse from her shoulder. The attacker then began running north on Waverley Street.
At the same time, a patrol officer who was driving on Waverley Street saw the victim chasing the girl and screaming, "She stole my purse!" The office detained the purse-snatcher a block away without incident and recovered the woman's purse, all of its contents intact.
Police aren't releasing the girl's name because she is as juvenile. She was taken to to the Santa Clara County Juvenile Hall.
The victim suffered minor scratches to her face and knees. She was treated by the Palo Alto Fire Department and released at the scene.
Comments
Old Palo Alto
on Oct 21, 2013 at 10:54 am
on Oct 21, 2013 at 10:54 am
Downtown Palo Alto is becoming an increasingly dangerous place. [Portion removed.] All the bleeding heart liberals will continue Palo Alto's march to destruction, with huge, new ugly buildings with inadequate parking, new bike bridges to EPA, widening the Newell Bridge to EPA, low cost housing, parking problems downtown, and pandering to developers. The list goes on and on. Palo Alto is losing its soul.
Registered user
Midtown
on Oct 21, 2013 at 12:46 pm
Registered user
on Oct 21, 2013 at 12:46 pm
I am glad to hear that the victim is okay and has her property back, I also salute an excellent example of local police work!