Restaurant employees, neighbors chase down suspected purse thief

SEATTLE – A few brave restaurant employees and neighbors near Nue Restaurant on Capitol Hill are credited with catching a suspected purse thief and holding her for police before she had a chance to steal a car.

“You kind of feel like a crime fighter,” said neighbor Jay Hines.

Hines said the suspect caught on surveillance video immediately set off red flags.

“She peeked in the Dumpster and then she tried to open up our door,” Hines said.

Surveillance video showed the woman entering the Nue Eestaurant without a purse but she didn't leave empty-handed.

“She sat at the bar, ordered a coke and some food,” said restaurant owner Chris Cvetkovich. “She seemed a little cagey, I mean she’s looking around. She was looking at a menu for half an hour, who looks at a menu for half an hour?”

Then the suspect walked out of the building, holding a purse that the restaurant owner said belongs to his wife.

“Grabbed the laptop, the purse, the keys, all the credit cards and the money,” said Cvetkovich. “I’d written it off at that point. I already started canceling credit cards.”

But nearly an hour later, Hines and restaurant employees said they spotted the same woman standing on the street corner holding a set of car keys.

“The lights and the alarm to our car starts going on, why the hell would that be?” asked Cvetkovich. “We saw she’s there on the corner trying to figure out which car the keys went to.”

“You could see the lights go off and you could hear like a beep, beep,” said Hines.

That’s when employees and Hines took off on foot after the woman.

“She was really quick and feisty, she got away from them,” Hines said.

Employees not only recovered all the stolen property but also held the suspect until police arrived and made the arrest.

The restaurant owner said if it hadn’t been for the restaurant surveillance video, he might never have been able to accurately describe the woman to police.

“We’re always watching. You have to as a small business owner, we have to, watching what’s going on in your establishment,” he said.

Police arrested the suspect for suspicion of robbery, assault, and theft.

Hines says it’s a matter of protecting the neighborhood from people who think they are above the law.

“It’s our neighborhood, you know?” said Hines. "They’re new business owners. Nobody deserves that."