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In a fine example of ordinary citizens doing the right thing by getting involved, Valerie Harrington(mother of quarterback Joey Harrington) joined two other women in helping thwart a purse-snatching in Portland, OR recently. Read on:
Purse-snatcher was no match for swarm of spirited citizens
Convicted - Responsive bystanders, including Joey Harrington's mom, help send a daylight street robber to prison
Saturday, January 24, 2009
AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian Staff
When Valerie Harrington asked the attractive man with curly dark hair if he was registered to vote, he just smiled and walked past her into the Holladay Park post office.
As Harrington talked to the stranger, a fellow volunteer, Liddy Curtin, was saying hello to her old friend Molly Smith.
The three women were shocked when the stranger came back and shoved Smith, knocking her to the ground. He grabbed her purse and tried to run, but Smith held on. He dragged her eight to 10 feet when Harrington, 58, and Curtin, 67, seized the purse strap and began a tug-of-war with the purse-snatcher. The strap broke and everyone fell. The thief jumped up without the purse and ran to a waiting car, which sped off.
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"I remember thinking, 'He's not going to succeed in getting this purse from us because this guy has really skinny legs,' " Harrington said.
Harrington is probably a fair judge of athletic ability. She is the mother of Joey Harrington, a former Central Catholic High School and University of Oregon quarterback who is now a backup for the New Orleans Saints. Valerie Harrington also had able help. Curtin is the mother of a Multnomah County sheriff's deputy.
This week, the three women relived their experiences on the witness stand at the Multnomah County Courthouse, where Jesse Louis Robinson, 39, was on trial for seven charges of robbery in connection with three purse snatchings within three hours in North and Northeast Portland.
The prosecutor said the Sept. 26 robberies were unusual because so many bystanders pitched in to help the victims.
"In each instance, you have civilians stepping up and trying to do what they can," said Prosecutor Darian Stanford. "I mean, it's just classic. You have Joey Harrington's mom and the mother of a deputy registering people to vote -- such do-gooders -- and they jump in to fight this guy off."
The morning's purse snatchings began shortly before 8 a.m. as Susan Hatley, a medical technologist at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, was walking from a parking lot to the building. Two men in a car pulled up next to her, a man hopped out, and cried out for help.
"He was holding his stomach and saying 'Oooh, I have to walk to the emergency room. How do I get there?' "
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Purse-snatcher was no match for swarm of spirited citizens
Convicted - Responsive bystanders, including Joey Harrington's mom, help send a daylight street robber to prison
Saturday, January 24, 2009
AIMEE GREEN
The Oregonian Staff
When Valerie Harrington asked the attractive man with curly dark hair if he was registered to vote, he just smiled and walked past her into the Holladay Park post office.
As Harrington talked to the stranger, a fellow volunteer, Liddy Curtin, was saying hello to her old friend Molly Smith.
The three women were shocked when the stranger came back and shoved Smith, knocking her to the ground. He grabbed her purse and tried to run, but Smith held on. He dragged her eight to 10 feet when Harrington, 58, and Curtin, 67, seized the purse strap and began a tug-of-war with the purse-snatcher. The strap broke and everyone fell. The thief jumped up without the purse and ran to a waiting car, which sped off.
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"I remember thinking, 'He's not going to succeed in getting this purse from us because this guy has really skinny legs,' " Harrington said.
Harrington is probably a fair judge of athletic ability. She is the mother of Joey Harrington, a former Central Catholic High School and University of Oregon quarterback who is now a backup for the New Orleans Saints. Valerie Harrington also had able help. Curtin is the mother of a Multnomah County sheriff's deputy.
This week, the three women relived their experiences on the witness stand at the Multnomah County Courthouse, where Jesse Louis Robinson, 39, was on trial for seven charges of robbery in connection with three purse snatchings within three hours in North and Northeast Portland.
The prosecutor said the Sept. 26 robberies were unusual because so many bystanders pitched in to help the victims.
"In each instance, you have civilians stepping up and trying to do what they can," said Prosecutor Darian Stanford. "I mean, it's just classic. You have Joey Harrington's mom and the mother of a deputy registering people to vote -- such do-gooders -- and they jump in to fight this guy off."
The morning's purse snatchings began shortly before 8 a.m. as Susan Hatley, a medical technologist at Legacy Emanuel Hospital, was walking from a parking lot to the building. Two men in a car pulled up next to her, a man hopped out, and cried out for help.
"He was holding his stomach and saying 'Oooh, I have to walk to the emergency room. How do I get there?' "
CONTINUED 1 | 2 Next
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