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| Alert for women shopping in the Clear Lake area
Police: Female robbers terrorizing women in Webster, Clear Lake area
03:47 PM CDT on Wednesday, April 8, 2009
By Courtney Zubowski / 11 News and KHOU.com
CLEAR LAKE -- Nerves are on edge south of Houston where a couple of female robbers have been terrorizing customers leaving stores.
Three of the attacks were in Webster and the fourth was in the Clear Lake area.
The latest robbery happened Monday at the Webster Hobby Lobby at 20091 I-45.
The victim said two women approached her and demanded her purse.
When she refused, she said the suspects beat her with a wooden bat and their fists.
One of the women is described as being 18 to 25 years old, approximately 5 feet to 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed around 120 pounds, according to a press release from the Webster Police Department.
The victim told police the second suspect was in her 40s, about 5 feet, 6 inches tall and weighed 125 to135 pounds.
Friendswood police issued a crime alert Tuesday about similar robberies in the Baybrook Mall area.
They say two women fitting the same description as the Hobby Lobby robbers have attacked female customers at the following places:
- DSW shoe store, 1211 W. Bay Area Blvd. in Webster at 4:03 p.m. on April 1
- Burlington Coat Factory, 20740 I-45 in Webster at 4:06 p.m. on April 1
- Marshall's, 1425 W. Bay Area Blvd. in Houston at 2:40 p.m. on April 2
"They are stepping up their intensity. They are actually trying to strike women to gain their property," said Chief Thomas Claunch from the Webster Police Department.
A woman who said she was the victim at DWS sent an e-mail describing the attack.
"Within a split second of opening my car door, this car had blocked my car in and a girl in her early 20s jumped out with a black police club demanding me to give her my purse!" the e-mail said. "I screamed at her NO, she came towards me to grab it and swung the club at my head, I stepped back yelled at her again and swung my purse at her (thank goodness for big purses) and ran."
The victim said the woman then jumped into her car, but her accomplice yelled at her to get out. They drove away empty-handed.
"Quite honestly, she was well-dressed and did not come off as being someone that would try and knock someone out in a parking lot for a purse!" the woman wrote. "But she had a look in her eyes that I will never forget - she was probably on drugs."
Police say all of the women were loading items into their vehicles when they were attacked.
The suspects fled in a white or light tan older model Buick or Chevrolet with a paper license tag.
Investigators say they are stepping up patrols and urging women in parking lots to be on the look out.
"We're going to get them. It's just a matter of time," Claunch said.
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Team Discovery |
