Police in at least two counties are looking for a 45-year-old Acworth man who allegedly has targeted female senior citizens in store parking lots for purse snatchings.
The suspect, Saul Ellis Locke, was already wanted on an arrest warrant out of Cobb County when Sandy Springs police said he attacked an 88-year-old woman leaving a CVS Pharmacy on Powers Ferry Road.
"He approached her, pushed her in the back seat of the vehicle and snatched her purse," Sandy Springs police Officer Forest Bohannon told Channel 2 Action News. "He got her purse, credit cards, maybe a little bit of cash."
The woman ran after the man but lost him when she tripped and fell, police said.
“She is 88 years old, so she's a pretty tough victim,” Bohannon said. The incident happened in January.
Locke also is wanted on a Cobb County warrant charging him with robbery and aggravated battery after he allegedly he stole a pocketbook from a 69-year-old woman as she loaded groceries into the trunk of her car outside the Costco store at Cumberland Mall.
That attack happened shortly after noon Dec. 26. According to an arrest warrant, Locke snatched the woman’s pocketbook, the woman grabbed it and wouldn’t let go, and Locke pulled the victim back to his truck and started driving away.
The assailant dragged the woman for 60 feet before she lost her grip and fell to the pavement, authorities said. She sustained a broken finger that required surgical pins to repair, as well as abrasions to her body.
Police described the suspect’s vehicle as a dark-colored, 2011 Chevrolet Z-71 pickup truck with Georgia tag BUF1755. Anyone who sees the vehicle or Locke is asked to call the police.
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