Woman S Purse

A Ferndale woman was arrested Tuesday and charged with shoplifting clothes worth $175 from the Glen Burnie Sears store and with drug possession, county police said.Larry Rogers, 19, a security officer at the store in the 6600 block of Ritchie Highway, told police he saw a woman come in about 6:15 p.m. and stuff four bathing suits, a pair of shorts and a shirt into a Rite Aid bag and leave the store without paying for them.Mr. Rogers stopped the woman and waited for Northern District Officer Michael Barclay to arrive.

Sweep finds many vehicle violations When officers from the Eastern District and detectives from the auto theft unit, along with investigators from the Motor Vehicle Administration, conducted a check of vehicle violations in the Pasadena and Glen Burnie areas last month, they found numerous violations and collected tens of thousands of dollars in fees. Police said 75 sets of Maryland plates were removed from vehicles and seized by MVA investigators during the sweeps on May 27 and 29, and that $68,246 in fees was recovered.

Officer is injured in Route 2 collision An Anne Arundel County police officer was seriously injured when his cruiser collided with a Ford truck, county police said. Officer Kenneth E. Thalheimer was driving north on Route 2 about 11 p.m. Saturday when a 2002 pickup driven by Serena Yermiah Bigio, 35, of the 8100 block of Forest Glen Drive in Pasadena was trying to make a left turn from southbound Route 2 to South River Road South, police said. Bigio failed to yield the right of way and struck the police car, police said.

Firefighters injured in apartment blaze Three firefighters were injured and three apartment buildings heavily damaged in a two-alarm fire yesterday at a Randallstown apartment complex, officials said. Seventeen apartments were damaged in the three adjoining brick buildings in the Brookhaven Estates complex in the 5400 block of Old Court Road, said Lt. John Cromwell, a county fire spokesman. The cause of the fire, which was reported about 2 p.m., was under investigation last night, he said.

Two Baltimore men have been charged with armed robbery after a Sykesville woman's purse was stolen in Ellicott City.According to police, a 52-year-old woman was getting out of her car when a man with a handgun approached her and took her purse. The woman was not injured.The gunman fled to a nearby car driven by a second man, and the two headed east on Route 40, police said.Baltimore County police stopped the vehicle on Route 40 in Catonsville based on a description broadcast on police radio.

Man slashes throat of Linthicum womanA Linthicum man was charged Friday with slashing the throat of a woman he wanted to marry, county police reported.According to detectives, the 22-year-old woman was asleep on her couch at 3:15 a.m. when the the 42-year-old man broke into her house in the unit block of Hampton Road and began slashing her throat.The woman struggled with the man and ran to a neighbor's house where she called police. She told officers that her assailant was another neighbor who uses PCP and has said he wanted to marry her, the police report said.

Purse snatched in Owen BrownHoward County police said a purse snatcher grabbed a 38-year-old woman's purse Thursday night as she walked in Owen Brown and fled with $150 in cash.About 9 p.m. Thursday, the victim and her husband were at the Owen Brown Village Center in the 7200 block of Cradlerock Way when a man grabbed the woman's purse from behind, police said.The purse contained $150 in cash and other personal property, police said.The Columbia woman received a minor cut on a finger, police said.

Woman's purse stolen outside supermarketAn unidentified man snatched a woman's purse containing $33 as she loaded groceries into her car Sunday outside an Ellicott City supermarket, Howard County police said.The 35-year-old woman was uninjured in the incident, which occurred shortly after 5 p.m. at the Normandy Shopping Center in the 8500 block of Normandy Center Drive, police said.As the woman loaded groceries into her vehicle, a pickup truck pulled up next to her and its male driver asked for directions, police said.

Westminster police are searching for a man who snatched a woman's purse as she left the Westminster Inn at Center and Green Streets about 11:45 p.m. Wednesday.Police said the man, described as about 5 feet, 11 inches tall and wearing a hooded shirt and blue jeans, approached the victim on the parking lot of the inn as she walked toward her car.The 37-year-old woman was not injured, and no weapon was seen, police said.K? The amount of money in the woman's purse was not disclosed.FIRE* Westminster: Firefighters from the Westminster and Reese stations were dispatched to investigate the report of a fire alarm sounding in a building on Center Street at 3:13 a.m. Thursday.

POLICE LOG* Town Center: 10300 block of Little Patuxent Parkway: The passenger-side rear window of a blue Ford truck was smashed Friday.* Hickory Ridge: 6400 block of Freetown Road: A woman's purse was stolen from a shopping cart outside the Giant grocery store in the Hickory Ridge Shopping Center on Thursday.

Two teen-agers have been arrested in a shooting last week in which three people were wounded outside a Southwest Baltimore liquor store, including a man who intervened as an attempt was made to rob a woman of her purse, police said yesterday. Charged with attempted first-degree murder, robbery and handgun violations were Travis Miller, 18, of the 200 block of S. Augusta Ave. and Jerry Arshard Jackson, 17, of the 1500 block of Northwick Ave., who turned himself in Saturday and was booked as an adult.

A Churchton woman wanted as a suspect in the February robbery of an elderly, disabled Shady Side woman has turned herself in, county police reported yesterday. Veronica Lorraine Pratt, 44, of the 5000 block of Churchton Road, was charged with robbery and theft and was being held yesterday evening at the county detention center on Jennifer Road on $35,000 bond. The victim told police that she had just returned to her home in the 6200 block of Shady Side Road after withdrawing $500 from a Bank of America ATM when the robbery occurred Feb. 27. She was sitting in her van in her driveway about 5 p.m. when a woman in a brown station wagon drove in behind her, walked up, forced opened the passenger door and snatched the elderly woman's purse containing the money, according to a police report.

A 26-year-old Harundale woman told police she was raped at gunpoint early yesterday by a man who got into her house through a rear door. The victim called police at 1:51 a.m. to report the attack, telling police she was asleep when a man entered her bedroom and sexually assaulted her, covering her mouth to keep her from screaming and holding a gun to her head as he raped her. He threatened to kill her if she made a sound, the woman told police. After the assault, he left the woman bound in her bed and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, according to the police report.

A woman's woman's handbag can be the most essential, dependable, cluttered, dramatic, sensual element in her life. She may rely upon it more than she does upon her sitter or her husband. It can hold more secrets than her most faithful friend. Its loss might be felt more keenly than the loss of a hairdresser, yet a new handbag can feel like a new love: the promise of a fresh start and the hope for perfection. Her handbag can be as whimsical as beads, fur and straw flowers or as severe as black patent leather.

A man trying to steal a woman's purse dragged her 20 feet through a Long Reach Village Center gas station parking lot over the weekend, Howard County police said.About noon Saturday, the man -- described as a black male between 35 and 40, about 5 feet 8 inches tall, wearing a dark jacket and sneakers -- wrestled the woman's purse away, police said.The victim, whom police did not immediately identify, was not injured.Last week, police reported a similar incident in Long Reach, during which an unknown assailant struck a woman in the back of her head, knocked her unconscious and then stole her purse.

Police Blotter is a sampling of crimes in Baltimore and Baltimore County.Central DistrictShooting: A 22-year-old man was admitted to Sinai Hospital after he was shot in the back while sitting in his car in the 400 block of W. Dolphin St. at 2: 55 a.m. yesterday.Northern DistrictShooting: A 25-year-old man was admitted to Maryland Shock Trauma Center after he was shot in the shoulder when he left the Hard Times Bar in the 2800 block of Huntington Ave. to make a telephone call at 12: 15 a.m. yesterday.

Howard County Police are investigating two armed robberies this week in which someone wearing a dark mask stole women's purses in parking lots in Ellicott City and Columbia.The robberies occurred within a day of each other, and police are investigating the possibility the same thief was involved. No one was injured in either incident.In the latest robbery, a masked gunman robbed a 51-year-old Ellicott City woman of her purse at 1:25 p.m. yesterday in the parking lot of Howard County Library's Ellicott City branch in the 9400 block of Frederick Road.

A woman's purse was stolen after she was accosted by two people outside a bank at Owen Brown Village Center in the 7200 block of Cradlerock Way Thursday night, police said.The woman told police she was confronted by the pair at 11:15 p.m., with one of them grabbing her purse and struggling with her until its strap broke, police said.The suspects then fled to the Owen Brown Place parking lot, where they got into a gold car, possibly a Chrysler LeBaron, police said.One is described by police as a black youth, 13 or 14 years old, about 140 pounds and wearing a matching blue checked shirt and shorts.

Howard County police are investigating an attempted robbery at the Mall in Columbia and a robbery of a woman in Fulton last week.About 8: 30 p.m. Thursday, a woman was about to enter her car at the mall when a man displayed what she thought was a gun, police said.The woman screamed and the man fled without taking anything, police said.Later that night, a Columbia woman was walking to her car from the High's convenience store on Murray Hill Road in Fulton when a man pointed a handgun at her, police said.