Senior’s strong hold denies purse snatcher
Janice Fowler said her reflexes simply took over. At first, the 77-year-old Davenport woman said she did not know what was happening. She was walking into a supermarket when someone came up from behind, put their hand on her shoulder and started pulling on her purse.
“I was not alarmed because it’s not unusual to have someone come up and put an arm on your shoulder and say, ‘How the heck are you?’ ” she said Friday.
But as a much younger woman tugged on her purse, Fowler instinctively grabbed the strap and refused to let go.
“There is no way she was going to get my purse unless she was going to drag me,” she said.
The incident happened about 4:30 p.m. July 15 in the parking lot of the Hy-Vee Food Store at 1823 E. Kimberly Road, Davenport. The woman stepped out of a moving car driven by her accomplice, and they struggled for a few seconds, Fowler said.
When she realized Fowler was not giving up her purse, the woman jumped back in the car, and the pair took off.
The two were charged with robbery Friday in Scott County District Court. Stephanie Eagle, 25, of 507 Spring St., Muscatine, Iowa, and Jacob D. Fedrick, 26, street address unknown, of Davenport, each face a single count of robbery. Fedrick also is charged with eluding police.
According to court records, police spotted Eagle’s vehicle shortly after the attempted robbery and pursued it from the area of Sturdevant Street and West Kimberly Road to the 3000 block of Division Street. The car was going more than 60 mph in a 35-mph zone, and police gave up the chase.
But Fowler said police told her they later found the vehicle abandoned in an alley, so she went with officers to identify it.
Fedrick and Eagle also are charged with theft in connection with an unrelated incident Thursday. According to court records, they stole a cellular telephone, a PlayStation 2 and three video games from a Davenport woman’s house after she let them in to use the phone. The woman was in her shower when the two left.
Fedrick and Eagle remained in custody Friday at the Scott County Jail.
Fowler said she will be more cautious in the future.
“When I hear someone coming up from behind me, I’m going to be looking around,” she said. “I’m not going to be this trusting 77-year-old woman that I have been. I’m going to be more alert now.”
Fowler said her daughter, who is a Scott County sheriff’s deputy, told her she should have let go of the purse.
“I’m an old woman, but I’m not helpless,” she added. “It made me mad, but scared, too.”
Dustin Lemmon can be contacted at (563) 383-2493 or dlemmon@qctimes.com.