HOUSTON—A 73-year-old member of Smart Financial CU tackled a thief as he was attempting to steal her purse.
Late last month Clifford James Bennett, 31, intentionally bumped into the back of Orissa Roman's car in the $590-million credit union's parking lot.
Both Roman and Bennett got out of their cars. Bennett skipped past Roman and jumped inside her car's front seat to take her purse.
"When he took that skip around me, at that moment I knew (what he was going after), my purse," said Roman told click2Houston.com. "He jumped in the car on the front seat and I jumped in on top of him."
The two briefly wrestled, and Bennett fled the scene with Roman's purse. She was not injured.
Police call such crimes "juggings," when victims are targeted at banks, credit unions and other places where cash is dispensed. Bennett has since been arrested and charged with aggravated robbery of the elderly.
Bennett and an unknown accomplice committed a similar crime the next day, according to the Houston Police Department. Bennett was charged again with aggravated robbery in that case, but the unidentified accomplice remains at large.
