Gee, well you shouldn't have thrown your purse at the teens if you didn't want to lose those $2000.

My guess is, she lied to police about the money in an effort to charge the teens with a felony.

$2,000 exactly would be the 'clue'.

That is just horrid. What is WRONG with so many kids!!!! Don't the parents teach them to be civil???????

Yeah, the boys were a bit out of line, but that lady was plain STUPID for throwing a purse that supposedly contained $2000...AND it was alligator!?!! My Coach would have stayed right on my arm and a rock would have hit them!
@Raymond - PS...I doubt that she really had $2000 cash in that alligator, too!

> My guess is, she lied to police about the money in an effort
> to charge the teens with a felony.

Depends on whether there is evidence of her withdrawing this kind of money from her bank, or was paid in cash for work she performed, and has an invoice to back up the amount of money she claimed she lost.

Thanks for the laugh, PAOnline. The "facts" in this story are absurd. No right thinking woman would throw a bag of cash at a car full of boys at whom she is angry b/c they tossed a milkshake in her direction. Sounds to me like a case of littering (bad) gone awry but with a huge payoff if the purse did indeed contain 2k.

I was hit with a lit cigarette on El Camino once, right by Stanford. It was thrown through my open window at a red light. I followed the two jocks who through it and watched where they parked their car. Then, I happily exacted my revenge. I still have the scar from where I was burned. In retrospect, I should've reported it and sued them, but I was young and shortsighted. But arrogant young men in groups are often ill-behaved and need to be stopped.

*threw

I sympathize totally with the woman, even if her actions were stupid. the only alligator handbag I have is vintage and too precious to me to throw at scumbags. I hope the losers get caught.

Here's an example of what a better response would have been: Web Link

That video is funny, Maury, but I bet its fake. There's no way just mildly bumping the front of a car would set off an airbag. I can't find what I would consider an "official" source on this yet, but a quick internet search indicates a 30mph impact or at least 7 G's. But...its still funny.
I feel bad for this lady though. I can understand her anger. We apparently have a few parents in town who need to keep a better watch on their teens, and also teach them some lessons about acting responsibly and exercising respect for their fellow human beings. There's plenty of ways to have fun and blow off steam that don't involve placing others at risk, or deliberately harming or harassing them.

Seems this is a really important story to the local media--

Web Link

Guess this must be an otherwise slow news day.

They were driving a Range Rover so the kids aren't poor. And maybe not so hard to find.
Teenaged boys in groups are a danger to society. Even supposedly grown men think their mindless destructive behavior is cute. My sympathies to the victim.

This made national news, and the link is current on the main front page of this posting:

Web Link

Bummer that the gun-toting senior citizen wasn't w/this lady...

Haha, I can totally see myself doing something stupid like that :D I have a low EQ at times. I've had to school myself not to react with knee jerk actions.

That being said, I too have noticed an uptick in rude spoiled brats running rampant once again around Palo Alto....same thing as happened during the tech bubble, parents working all the time who throw money and car keys at their kids and kids who feel free to do anything they please because mommy and daddy can hire a good attorney. Those kids should be ashamed of themselves. Trust me, if they are caught, mommy and daddy will have an attorney on the matter in no time and the woman who threw the purse will be in more trouble than the brats.

If this story is true, this has to be the stupidest woman in Palo Alto.

I've called the doctor, I've called the nurse, but now I can't call the Lady with the Alligator Purse. 'Cause she threw it into a Range Rover.

Meanwhile, you disrespectful brats, (you KNOW they are reading this and enjoying all of the attention), you have someone else's property. You did something wrong and low class to begin with, now do the right thing and leave that purse in a bank or somewhere safe where someone can find it and return it to that woman. Do it WITH all of her possessions inside. You should be ashamed of yourselves, and your parents should be ashamed as well. Not very well brought up, are you? How would you like it if someone did that to you? Wealth does not equal class, and you just made that point very clear.

I might start driving around Palo Alto hurling milkshakes at everyone, just in case I get that $2000 jackpot (sic)

The alleged " victim " will have to prove that she had withdrawn $ 2000
or account for how she had the money.

Something very,very strange about this story

Was she leaving Rudy's bar at the time of the alleged " incident" ?

Gosh, Sharon, what would it matter if she was leaving Rudy's or Miyake or an office or her vehicle?? Think she was a honeytrap to catch some wayward teens whose parents let them out unchaperoned???

[Post removed due to disrespectful comment or offensive language]

ha ha ha! maybe the police should ask the woman why she was carrying $2000 around in her purse just before midnight. Lived in enough cities to know when a drug deal goes south. Where are the old cops with institutional knowledge that the city manager and city council forced into an enjoyable retirement now. Probably chuckling to themselves and rightly so.

Sounds like a fish story. As the vehicle passes, they throw a shake, the "victim" now has to perceive what has happened, then react by throwing her purse, which should have been strapped over her shoulder. The time required would have put unreasonable distance between the "victim" and the open window on the moving car. Just 2 seconds of perception and reaction time would put about 30 feet between them at 20mph.

From the comments, it seems the punks were the "victims" while the lady was the provoker. A big issue was made to make sure everyone knew the milk shake was "vanilla." As a means of identifying the punks, I notice ethnicity was not included in the description.

Only in Palo Alto.

I too will call BS on this.
By the time something would hit her, the vehicle would have already passed.
A vehicle moves approximately 1.5 feet per second per MPH, so 20MPH = 30 fps.
And she was able to get it into less a whole less than 3 square feet is really fishy. Really?

To parody SpoonBoy: there was no purse

Sounds like typical 'youths',..

Love Ernie's comments. Yep, 'nilla milkshakes! Word.

Hummm. $2000.00 drud money.

She should join the SF 49ers. They need an accurate throwing quarterback.

Ah Palo Alto, how I love thee.

Clearly the teenagers should not have thrown the milkshake, and I hope they are caught, though unlikely. But why would someone choose to take the life of an alligator just for a handbag? Not cool. And does anyone believe the $2,000 story?

I sort of believe the 2k story. She could be a high-priced call girl, or a tourist, or a business owner who would be making an end of the week deposit. Heck, I've made large cash deposits into business accounts before & I'm not a drug dealer. A lot of the undocumented workers in my community carry a lot of cash, making them perfect robbery targets. While I love my vintage 'gator bag & wouldn't throw it at someone, I commiserate w/her reaction. I hope the teen thugs are caught. Oh, & yeah - I want a description of them, including their ethnicity. Losers.

Brutally and pointlessly assaulted? Did you have a childhood? Part of growing up Is testing the arbitrary social parameters that dictate the majority of our behavior. Veritably aimlessly throwing a milkshake at a presumably innocent victim seems a bit unnecessary, but it's a harmless crime manifested by the absolute repression these children are subjected to in the dream world bubble of Palo Alto. Decorum is the feverish refuge of aging, a sort of last attempt to establish order in a philosophically chaotic paradigm, you can't expect developing human to have any conception of mortality that supersedes cultural portrayal, so their is little chance that they will find order as soothing to the nerves as those of us who have aptly confronted the conundrum of death. They're children growing up in a obscenely boring adult world, so to assert their youth they're going to rebel against the tenants of the aforementioned world.

To put it in simpler terms, they're kids man, what could you possibly expect? Throwing a purse full of money, (that likely doesn't exist, and if it does, I imagine the loss of 2k is hardly detrimental to infallible wealth of a "well to do" Paloaltain) seems decidedly stupider. Further, wouldn't that also constitute assault if were really going by the word of the law here? I doubt it was self defense, considering milkshakes are typically non-leathal.

I imagine the police will do what they must to keep their pockets lined and bluster the illusion virtue, but pursuing a fairly mundane act of childhood cynicism sounds a bit pointless. Maybe they should vex their efforts towards legitimately earning their paycheck by pursuing real crimes that effect people beyond evoking the necessity of a shower.

This is hardly the crime of the century, If you don't believe me, look at the crime blotter for EPA, or Bay view Hunters Point.

I have no intension for this to come across as rude, I have nothing but love for all people, I just wish people would take a step back and recognize that life is supposed to be fun. Having been the recipient of a milkshake assault on more then one occasion, I can genuinely say that there isn't really anything to bad about it.

And a handgun? Really man? that's how bitter you are? Jesus, I hope I don't grow into that, sure makes me glad I didn't waste to much money on higher education if that's what it molds people into.

And a description of their ethnicity? That's an actual factor in your assessment of people? Would you like to know if they were wearing a hoddie and carrying skittles? Relax nurse ratched, it sure would be the end of the world if your precious hand bag went missing, I wonder how many starving Cantonese children it took to assemble it, but I guess they don't matter, seeing as how we seem to be all about white supremacy today.

But I wouldn't hold it against you, we're all just confused animals that want our indignant assertions of existence to be heard before they fade out. Just recognize that you have a whole working population that makes your way of life possible that is significantly more open minded then the majority of you, and that most of life is sustained by artificial stereotypes that do not benefit humanity. Good thing I've done my time in that town. I'm sure we could all agree on that.

Fun rant yeah? Go team!

Satan: Loved your rant. Points well taken! Nice perspective.

@ "satan:"

And, part of "childhood" is learning to accept the consequences of your actions. These weren't young kids. They were DRIVING a Range Rover on University Avenue at midnight. Parents?

You can make excuses for their stupid behavior all you want. However, these "kids" are JERKS. If that were me, I would have taken down their license plate number, make and model of car and pressed charges.

These "kids" -- who may or may not already be adults -- deserve a lesson that might prevent them from retaining such stupid decisions and prevent them from growing into adults who don't act like, well, spoiled, selfish bullies because a few members of society will make excuses for their pathetic behavior.

So, "satan," the next time you are struck with something from a vehicle at around midnight by a car of fools, I wonder if you will have the same "kids will be kids" attitude. When they miss the person and strike a vehicle...or break off your car's mirrors with baseball bats in a game of mirrorball, or dent your car -- please let us know how "kid-like" this behavior is.

If these are "kids" -- the are BAD kids.

> Gee, well you shouldn't have thrown your purse at the teens if you didn't want to lose those $2000.

Sure, "Resident", blame the victim. Everyone is supposed to go through life with the detachment of "Resident" who runs the world from behind his keyboard with all the answers.

Sometimes I just resident and other thoughtless posters here would just think for a second if they are capable. The lady had a thoughtless moment because she was pointlessly assaulted by rotten little brats in what is surely a criminal way. Too bad she was not carrying a handgun, then Resident could talk about how people shouldn't throw milkshakes if they don't want to get shot.

Obviously the kids had nothing to do at that hour of the night, but then what was she doing out at that hour. It plays both ways.

I do not get it. From the article it appears SHE threw the purse. So what did the kids steal. They should not every be charged with theft just because the dumb woman GAVE them a purse and $2000.

@satan- pretty much spot on

@Nayeli- They cannot be bad at this time; innocent until proven guilty

I wouldn't assume that either the kids or the woman are Palo Alto residents. A LOT of out-of-towners spend their evenings in Palo Alto.

More importantly, however, is, "Where can I get a vanilla shake to go at this hour?"

Really, Nancy, what was the victim doing out at that hour? What is this, 1550? 500BC? Where are we, in Venice? In ancient Greece? Sheesh.

The woman wasted $2000 on something and this was the best excuse she could come up with.

Its not hard to imagine throwing whatever you have handy when someone has just thrown something at you. Unwise and probably illegal, but we are not robots.

This story is not about the two thousand dollars ($2,000.00), and it certainly not about kids being kids, or kids growing up in a certain neighborhood…

All too often society thinks events like this is funny...but it is not...remember Ron Artest, the NBA player who had beer thrown in his face during a game?

My point is this liquid could have been anything such as: acid, piss, feces, poison, gasoline, oil, aids, hot coffee or chocolate, or some other dangerous chemical...

It does make a difference if it was a cup of water...

This is what I consider to be a hate crime in all aspects...

You hear about stories all of the time about some man throwing lighter fluid on a woman and then setting her on fire...this is no different...

To throw liquids on someone you do not know is very dangerous...

To have liquids of any kind thrown on you, regardless of the liquid, by someone you do not know is horrifying...

The American society has gone to hell and will continue to get worst...

Keep laughing people, as some day, I will be reading a story about you...and since this type of behavior is acceptable, I guess I will just laugh also...

As mentioned, the money is not the issue as americans lie and exaggerate shit all the time...

Who can prove she even had an alligator bag or any bag at all?

If she threw it into the car, in effect giving them the purse and the money - there's no crime.