A man in a stolen champagne-colored Cadillac may have been responsible for three or four recent purse snatchings and attempts around Uptown New Orleans, police said this week.
In the first instance, a 31-year-old woman was walking home on St. Charles Avenue about 7:15 p.m. Sept. 21, when a man walked up to her and grabbed her purse, police said. She started to yell and the man hit her in the head and knocked her down, but she held on to her purse and continued to yell until he left, police said.
Shortly after 8 a.m. Sept. 23, a 52-year-old woman parked near Cherokee and Dominican when a champagne-colored Cadillac pulled up and a man began walking toward her, his hands outstretched. The woman screamed, and the man got back into the car and left.
About an hour later, while police were still talking to the previous victim, a similar-colored Cadillac pulled into a parking lot in the 2800 block of Burdette, police said. A man got out, walked up to an 81-year-old woman and pushed her to the ground, grabbed her purse and then left in the same car.
Early Saturday morning (Sept. 24), another purse snatching was reported in the Lower Garden District. Two women had left the Saint bar on St. Mary Street about 4 a.m. and were walking in the 1800 block of Hastings near Felicity and Magazine when they noticed a man behind them, said Sgt. Sandra Contreras of the NOPD Sixth District. The man asked for a cigarette, they said they didn’t have one, and he pushed one down, snatched her purse and ran off. Though the vehicle was not observed, given the similar time and manner, that purse snatching may have been by the same man, Contreras said.
The same vehicle was also observed in an incident in the Lakeview-based Third District, police said. Witnesses were able to catch the license plate (“TGR758”), but investigators discovered that it had been taken off of a broken-down car, said Sgt. Chris Billiot of the NOPD Second District persons-crimes division. The Cadillac itself is believed to be stolen from a dealership in Metairie, and it was spotted briefly by Tulane police on Broadway Street but managed to get away from them.
“He’s still out there in that Cadillac,” Billiot said.
The car is a 1999 champagne-colored Cadillac Deville with polished chrome wheels.
Anyone with information should call Second District police at 658-6020, or CrimeStoppers at 822-1111.
