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Subscribe to RSSA man, disgusted by the crime he witnessed, teams up with the 90-year-old victim to chase down the man who mugged her. KNTV's Jodi Hernandez reports.
An elderly woman in California teamed up with a Good Samaritan Monday to track down and nab her alleged mugger.
The 90-year-old woman stopped at an Oakland, Calif., gas station to ask for directions when a man outside the store attacked her on her way in.
“I just thought it was the most horrible crime,” witness Robb Revelli told NBC Bay Area.
Store surveillance cameras captured the attack and showed the man tackling and robbing the five-foot-tall, 88-pound woman before fleeing the scene on foot.
Revelli, who had gone into the store to buy a drink, helped the unnamed victim collect her credit cards after he noticed the attack outside and then stepped into action.
“I asked her if she wanted to go to the hospital or chase this guy, and she wanted to chase him, so if she was down, I was down to go get him. And we did.”
The two jumped into woman’s car and caught up to the man. Revelli got out and grabbed him as the woman called 911 from the car.
“[I] started jumping fences after him and caught him and got him in a headlock and held him there for the police,” Revelli said. “[The woman] was my partner; she was really into the chase with me. She was not scared at all.”
When police arrived, they arrested the suspect, who is currently behind bars facing robbery charges.
“What I really appreciate is the citizen coming to the aid of the 90-year-old lady for her safety,” Doug Keely of the Oakland Police Department told NBC Bay Area. “We are concerned when you’re chasing suspects into backyards and things like that. We really want you to be safe.”
“It’s not a great neighborhood, but if people just chipped in a little bit, it’d be so much easier to catch all the violence in my neighborhood right now,” Revelli said.
The victim is at home in California’s Central Valley with a severely bruised hip, but she said she’s incredibly grateful Revelli was there to help.
“He’s an excellent, wonderful fellow,” she told NBC Bay Area. “I hope God protects him and blesses him for the rest of his life.”
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