Stop & Shop Purse-Snatching Suspect Arrested

 arrested a Reading woman Wednesday who allegedly stole a purse from a customer inside the  on Main Street last month, police said.

Erica Small, 23, faces a felony charge of theft from a person, said Det. Chris Dalis in an email to Stoneham Patch.

Last week police were looking for leads and of a woman who allegedly stole a purse while inside the store on July 24. 

"We were able to identify the suspect and located her (Wednesday)," Dalis wrote. "She confessed to the incident and was arrested. We did receive several tips from the story (Stoneham Patch) published and got the identification from a Reading patrolman who had dealings with her in the past."

Small was slated for arraignment Thursday morning at 9 in Woburn District Court.

According to police, Small allegedly "stole the purse from a shopper inside the store (and was) captured on video surveillance concealing the purse under her sweatshirt and exiting," Dalis wrote in a July 28 email, adding that she was "wearing a baggy sweatshirt on a muggy 90 degree day."

Small allegedly fled the area in a gray four-door Dodge Dakota pickup truck, Dalis said.

"Upon exiting the parking lot suspect threw the purse onto the ground in the lot after rifling through its contents," Dalis wrote. "This is the fourth similar incident at a Stoneham business in recent weeks. 

"We made an arrest of a Woburn resident two weeks ago for a similar crime at Stop & Shop; however, this one seems unrelated."