8/28/2010
Salina Journal

By ERIN MATHEWS

Salina Journal

Two Jiffy Lube employees were working on a car Friday morning when they heard screaming and looked up to see a man trying to rip a purse away from a woman lying in the parking lot at Central Mall.

Manager Kris Waitt and Steve Roy, assistant manager of the store at 2365 S. Ninth, ran to the woman's aid, but the robber got the purse and jumped in the passenger seat of a waiting car before they could stop him.

"She was giving him hell," Roy said. "She was fighting him the whole way. He had to earn that purse, let me tell you. She was not letting him have it."

Waitt said the robber dragged the woman two or three feet by the purse. She suffered scrapes, cuts and bruises in the incident, which occurred about 10:30 a.m. in front of JCPenney's entrance on the south end of the mall.

"I wish we would have got him," Waitt said. "She was a very nice lady."

Waitt said he stayed with the woman, who was "pretty shaken up," until the police reports were completed.

Police were still looking for the man who committed the strong-arm robbery Friday afternoon. He is described as a black man who fled in a white Chrysler 300, said Salina Deputy Police Chief Carson Mansfield.

Police ask that anyone with information concerning the crime call Crimestoppers at 825-TIPS, text SATIPS to CRIMES (274637), or visit pd.salina.org and follow the Crimestoppers link to submit a Web tip.

A man who is accused of driving the getaway car was arrested Friday, Mansfield said. Kenneth Parker, 25, 1419 Lewis, was being booked into Saline County Jail on Friday afternoon.

The police department did not release the woman's name, but it is also Journal policy not to identify victims of violent crime before a suspect is in custody.

The woman's daughter-in-law said the woman, who is from Dickinson County, was in Salina while her husband receives treatment for cancer at Salina Regional Health Center.

The woman, who is in her 70s, went to Central Mall on Friday morning to purchase some items her husband would need while he was in the hospital, the daughter-in-law said.

The purse contained the woman's husband's wallet as well as the woman's belongings, according to the daughter-in-law.

"They have no idea what they've put her through," she said. "She is a wonderful woman."

n Reporter Erin Mathews can be reached at 822-1415 or by e-mail at emathews@salina.com.

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