A few minutes later, Joanne Johnson, 72, of Middletown, said she was loading her groceries in her car trunk after shopping at Meijer when a man grabbed her purse that was in her cart “in a flash” and was gone. After the suspect allegedly grabbed her purse, Johnson and a witness chased after him.
“I couldn’t catch him,” she said. “Thankfully someone else did. He had my purse for 30 seconds and he was caught.”
After his second attempt to steal a purse, Johnson was seen running through the Meijer parking lot by members of a construction crew from Southern Ohio Paving, police said. Shane Parks, a foreman with the company, told police that two women, Johnson and a witness, were chasing the suspect, yelling that he tried to steal a purse.
Parks tackled Johnson, and when he resisted, two other employees held him down until police arrived, police said.
Johnson was charged with robbery and theft, according to the police department. He is scheduled to appear at 9 a.m. June 5 in Middletown Municipal Court. He remains in the city jail, according to records.
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