Gone in a flash
Garrison woman recounts purse snatching
By STU MERRY
Elmer and Evelyn Herdt of Garrison have been on the phone almost non-stop this past week. They aren’t making social calls to family and friends, though they wish they were. They are instead contacting credit card companies, banks, medical facilities and insurance providers.
Evelyn was mugged in Minot this past week. Virtually everything she had in her purse is gone.
The elderly couple had gone to Minot, Evelyn said, to pick up some incidentals that they weren’t able to purchase in Garrison. To avoid the rush, the two left early in the morning Wednesday, July 2, arriving at the Wal-Mart parking lot at about 8:30 a.m. As Elmer is disabled, the two parked in a handicapped area close to one of the front doors. It was a pleasant July morning. Until then.
Out of nowhere, a man wearing a dark hooded shirt dashed up to Evelyn, ripping the purse from her right arm. In a flash he was gone. "He just came by me and grabbed it," she said. "Elmer didn’t even see this happening, that’s how fast it was … he (the perpetrator) could run like a reindeer."
Evelyn’s first thought was her money – about $300. Then, her mind quickly rushed to other things. There was all of Elmer’s medicine records and her records. As she watched the thief disappear in the distance, all she could think was: "There goes my purse."
"I hollered and screamed someone had taken my purse," she added. "You couldn’t do anything. He was gone."
A boy quickly came and asked what happened. He tried to follow the individual but to no avail. Another person in a white pickup attempted to follow the thief as well, but could only find that the person had gotten into a silver vehicle – an older Pontiac.
Wal-Mart officials took the couple into the store, calling law enforcement. The couple was shaken. As they waited, reality set in. "I lost everything," she said. The only thing she had on her person was the key to the family vehicle. It was the only thing that wasn’t take
