Purse pilfered in Macon prayer room

A tall, skinny man took off running up Hydrolia Street. He had a woman’s cream-colored purse in tow. The woman, 50, had been at the Redeeming Hope Center on Church Street, not far from the Marriott hotel on Coliseum Drive in east Macon. She told the police that she had left her purse in the church’s prayer room while she went to the restroom. When she stepped out of the restroom, she saw the purse snatcher leaving the prayer room, the purse’s strap dangling from his hands. According to a Bibb County sheriff’s report of the Aug. 23 incident, “She told him to put the purse down and he replied, ‘(Expletive) you, call the police.’” The woman followed the fellow outside and yelled that he was stealing her handbag. The purse happened to have the woman’s iPhone in it. Sheriff’s deputies tracked it to a patch of woods nearby. The purse was still zipped up and “everything appeared to be in the purse,” the report said.

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 1:00 AM with the headline "Purse pilfered in Macon prayer room."