The Purse Snatcher

In the midst of our move to Sweden, we spent some time with my family in Michigan. Towards the end of our stay there, we decided to take a side trip to Toronto and Niagara Falls. We had a good time at both places. If you want to see a few snapshots, just take a look at the pictures section of this home page.

One particularly exciting thing that happened when we were in Toronto, besides going up in what was at one time the world's tallest building (the CN Tower), was that I got the opportunity to play hero and run down a purse snatcher.

On our first day in Toronto, we stopped off at a tourist bureau to find out what there was for us to do. In the convention center behind the tourist bureau they were having a Mary Kay Cosmetics convention. Suddenly, I heard a bunch of people yelling and saw 3 or 4 security guards chasing this guy. I immediately tossed Philip out of my arms in the general direction of Camilla and joined in the pursuit.

Just as I picked up the chase, the thief ran outside of the convention center and cut across a very busy street. Not thinking at all about my own safety, I cut across the street right behind him, dodging a couple of cars and a huge truck. I almost lost him, but I had the opportunity to make up some lost ground on the other side of the street, where there was a big park, full of people.

In order to distract my quarry and possibly encourage others to help me, I started yelling at the top of my lungs as I ran: "Purse Snatcher! Purse Snatcher!" A couple of big guys stood up from their park benches and suddenly we had the thief triangulated. There was no escape, and I ran up and grabbed him by the arm. The thief was headed for justice this time, or so I thought.

The guy who I had just caught suddenly became the innocent victim, and started asking us why we were chasing him. I answered, "because you just stole that purse you are carrying."

He replied, "This isn't a purse, it's my backpack. Do you want to see my ID? It's right inside."

Sure enough, he wasn't carrying a purse at all, but it was a backpack. Worse yet, it really was his ID that he produced from the main pocket of the backpack. Suddenly, I started feeling a bit confused. The other security guards who had begun the chase were nowhere to be seen and the 2 guys from the park started to look at me funny. "Do you still need our help?" one of them inquired.

Not knowing what else to do, I replied, "No, I guess not," and let go of the sleeve of the man I had just caught. Just as he jogged off a police man leaned out of his patrol car on the street.

"Is everything OK here?" I tried to explain the situation to the police man, but he seemed to be in a hurry. "Just answer, Yes or No, he demanded." Not knowing what to say, I mumbled something and headed back to the tourist center.

When I arrived at the tourist center, everyone was waiting expectantly for me (even the security guards). "Did you get him?" they asked.

"Yes, I did. Didn't you see me standing there?" I replied. Apparently they hadn't. Feeling even more confused, I asked one of the convention center workers, "What did that guy do?"

"He stole the tip jar," was her reply. "They had a beautiful tip jar which by itself was worth $50, and it was crammed full of $5's and $10's."

I was stunned. "Damn it, why didn't anybody tell me! I had him in my grasp, but I let him go because I didn't know what he had stolen."

The convention center workers looked at me with an oblivious look in their eyes that I interpreted to mean, "What -- ever! Camilla and I picked up Philip and continued on with our vacation.