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Dec 9, 2008 4:45 pm US/Central
Money For Presents Stolen From FW Grandmother
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
She went out to buy Christmas gifts for her grandchildren, but a thief stole hundreds of dollars from a 70-year-old North Texas woman before she could even make a dent in her shopping list.
"It was just an awful, awful feeling," said Mary Holstein.
The crime happened around 4 p.m. Friday. "Earlier that day I had cashed a check for $400, because I was buying Christmas presents," she said.
The 70-year-old went to a Wal-Mart in south Fort Worth to buy toys for her grandkids.
As soon as she turned to unlock her car, a man ran up and grabbed her purse out of her shopping cart. Police believe he had been watching her as she left the store.
"He was so vicious," Holstein said. "I just grabbed the bottom of the bag, and I couldn't hold on. I really pulled some muscles trying to hold on and I couldn't."
The thief ran to a black car in the back of the parking lot, which was out of view of the store's surveillance cameras.
"All I had was my keys left in my hand," she said. "I was pretty vulnerable at that point."
Holstein went home and spent hours cancelling her credit cards. Then she got a call from a woman who found her purse at Hulen Mall.
"All the money was gone, but my credit cards and my driver's license were still there," she said.
Holstein said she has always believed in angels, and she did again the night when she met the family that returned her handbag.
"We all joined hands and they prayed, thanking God that I had not been hurt in the process and the grandparents were praying in Spanish," she said. "It was truly like an angel had been brought into my life and turned a very tragic event into something so beautiful."
Police want everyone to pay attention when they're driving home. They say look to look in rearview mirrors and if someone seems to be following behind, drive to a police station or call 911.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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