By Nathan Hardin
nhardin@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY — Two Food Lion customers chased a pocketbook thief into the parking lot of a store on Faith Road Monday, but stopped when an apparent getaway driver held them at gunpoint.
A 61-year-old woman told Salisbury Police she had been shopping at the store about 3:30 p.m. when a man grabbed her purse from her shopping cart near the service desk in the store.
Two men chased the robber into the parking lot and one man tackled him and began fighting the robber.
The customer placed the thief in a headlock, but a woman in a green or blue vehicle pulled up to the altercation.
The robber screamed at the woman to get a gun and shoot the man, a Salisbury Police report said, and seconds later the woman emerged from the vehicle with a handgun.
The customer let go of the thief and the two fled in the vehicle toward Faith Road.
Police said the vehicle, which may have been a Chevrolet Cobalt, was last seen traveling through the intersection at East Innes Street toward East Council Street.
The license plate was covered by a piece of cardboard, the report said.
Police said the purse was recovered at the scene, but the wallet inside was stolen. The value was estimated in the report at $50.
Investigators were reviewing surveillance footage this morning and have released two screen shots from the store’s security cameras.
The report said the thief is believed to be between 5-foot-6 and 5-foot-9 and had a goatee.
The driver was a young woman weighing about 250 pounds.
No other descriptions were available Monday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Salisbury Police Department at 704-638-5333 or Crime Stoppers at 1-866-639-5245.