ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, April 23, 1996 TAG: 9604230133
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN STAFF WRITER
When Jean Evans changed purses Thursday, she didn't know the eel-skin pocketbook she got for $1.25 at a yard sale would help her avoid serious injury.
The 45-year-old Rocky Mount woman was walking to her son's truck in the Sam's Club parking lot about 11 a.m. Friday when a man drove past and snatched her purse.
"I heard a car slowing down," Evans said, "and all of a sudden, he zoomed past me and grabbed my purse."
She was jerked forward before the strap broke, police said. Her 23-year-old son, Lynn, jumped in his truck and took off after the car.
He chased it to Thirlane Road in Roanoke County, where he blocked the car in a parking lot, Jean Evans said. Roanoke police picked her up at Towne Square and drove Evans to her son. Police said her son shouldn't have taken matters into his own hands; Evans is just glad he wasn't hurt, she said.
Thomas Joseph Crews, 18, of Maple Hill, N.C. was charged with robbery. He is being held at Roanoke City Jail without bond.
Jean Evans said she still was nervous about going out alone but was happy she escaped the incident with only some pulled muscles. If she had been carrying her old purse - with two straps - police told her she probably would have been dragged by the car.
In other reports from the Roanoke Police Department:
* A driver for Yellow Cab Co. was found slumped over the steering wheel of his taxi early Monday morning, police said. Donald George Snyder, 36, was bleeding from numerous cuts on his face and head.
Snyder told police he was robbed by a rider he took to the 2300 block of Orange Avenue. The man gave Snyder a $20 bill, and as the driver made change, the man started to beat him about the head, police said.
The man then grabbed the gear shift; the cab moved forward and hit a utility pole. Other cab drivers and the responding police officers saw the man run away and enter a house.
Police said William Bernard Harbor, 20, of Roanoke admitted robbing Snyder. Harbor was released from jail Monday night.
* A Southwest Roanoke convenience store was robbed over the weekend.
A man entered a 7-Eleven on Grandin Road about 10:45 Friday night, brought a candy bar up to the register, then told the clerk he was robbing the store.
She doubted his story, so the man told her he had a gun, police said. He never showed her a gun, but she gave him a small amount of money. He left on foot.
* Police responded to a brawl involving 75 to 100 people at The Melting Pot restaurant on Campbell Avenue early Sunday morning, police said. An off-duty police officer, who was working as a security guard, tried to break it up and the crowd broke the glass out of the front door as people ran from the club.
A 38-year-old Floyd woman reported that people at the club set her hair on fire at the club about 1 a.m. Siobhan M. Mafuk said she was there to see a reggae band and had only been there about five minutes when the incident happened, police said.
An officer observed that the woman's hair was singed and that approximately 10 inches had been burned, police said. The officer did not say whether the woman sought medical treatment for the burn.
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