Drive-By Purse Snatchers Drag Skokie Shopper Through Parking Lot

SKOKIE, IL — A woman walking to her car was briefly dragged behind a car in the Orchard Place parking lot after a man reached through a window from a moving car and grabbed her purse. Witnesses said the woman was returning to her car from the Ulta Beauty shop around 4 p.m. on Saturday when a red car with two men inside drove up alongside her.

She felt a tug on her purse as the passenger reached out and grabbed it, dragging her through the parking lot for several feet, according to WMAQ-TV.

The woman suffered scrapes on her hands and knees, she told the station. She said her money and cellphone were stolen in the purse.

"They just drove by, with the window down, grabbed her coat and bag and took off," a witness told WMAQ. "I saw a woman rolling on the ground." He said briefly chased the fleeing car and got a good look at the driver and passenger as it jumped a median and drove away through oncoming traffic at Golf Road and headed south on Skokie Boulevard.

According to Skokie police, the red car was possibly a Toyota, its passenger was described as a 20-something black man and the incident was reported outside the Panera at 4:18 p.m. The victim had no apparent injuries, police said.

No one was in custody in connection with the incident, and police were canvassing the area for surveillance cameras that may have caught the suspects on tape, according to WMAQ.

_{Location of robbery, Orchard Place parking lot (Google Maps)}

_{Top photo: Orchard Place parking lot | Google Street View}