TEMPLE (October 5, 2012)--Anthony Lucas Diaz, 34, of Temple, was in the Bell County Jail Friday facing charges in connection with the robbery of an 85-year-old woman and the theft of another woman’s purse 30 minutes later.
The robbery was reported at around 7:50 a.m. Thursday on North 2nd Street, where the 85-year-old victim told officers a man approached her and grabbed her purse.
She refused to let go and the man dragged her into the street where he took the purse and pushed her to the pavement, leaving her with minor injuries.
He ran to his vehicle and fled.
About 30 minutes later on North 3rd Street another woman told officers she had just placed her purse on the desk in her office as she arrived for work when a man grabbed it, ran out the front door, got into a vehicle and drove off.
In both cases, the women remembered the license number of the vehicle and the number was the same.
Officers identified the owner and arrested Diaz a short time later at a Temple apartment complex.
Charges were pending late Friday morning in the purse thefts.
Diaz was held on a list of other unrelated charges including criminal trespass.
