Trio held in grocery lot purse snatchings

Cobb County police said Saturday they arrested three men on charges they were snatching purses from women in the parking lots of Kroger grocery stores.

Robert John Walter, 32, and Christopher Lee Witkowski, 34, both of Marietta, and Simon Michael Abbey, 21, of Smyrna are each facing three counts of snatch robbery, according to Cobb County police.

They are accused of snatching purses from three woman in separate incidents on Jan. 8 and 13.

Two occurred at the Kroger in Vinings, 3312 Cobb Parkway; the other was in the Marietta area, at 3395 Canton Road, police said.

In each case, one of the men would run up behind a woman who had just left the supermarket and snatch her purse, police spokesman Nathan McCreary said.

Cobb County police Detective Robert Duncan solved the case after the suspects started using the victims’ credit cards at local stores, McCreary said. The trio are being held in the Cobb County jail.