Police Charge Teen With Receiving Stolen Property In Connection With Robberies Targeting Women
By Todd Quinones
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- CBS 3 has learned Philadelphia Police have charged a teen with receiving stolen property, but not the robberies, in connection with a violent robbery spree targeting women in Philadelphia.
Investigators tell CBS 3 they caught the juvenile with one of the victim's cell phones.
WATCH: Surveillance Video
There have been six attacks in West Philadelphia. One of the attacks was caught on surveillance video.
Authorities are still on the hunt for the suspect who robbed a 60-year-old woman at gunpoint and then dragged her around on the ground.
She tells her story to CBS 3.
You can see in the upper left the man approaches from behind and puts the woman in a choke hold while threatening to shoot her.
A struggle ensues and then he violently throws the woman to the ground.
And then to her horror he begins dragging her around the parking lot while she was screaming.
The victim whose purse was stolen spoke with CBS 3 Wednesday night.
"I'm just afraid he's going to hurt somebody someday to get what he wants and I don't want to see that happen," the victim told Eyewitness News.
Police say after stealing the woman's purse the suspect ran into the woods, possibly through the Cobbs Creek golf course.
That was January 13th.
There have been at least five other attacks right in the Overbrook Park neighborhood this month. The most recent occurred Wednesday morning when a 28-year-old woman was thrown to the ground and her purse was stolen.
Each time the suspect targets a woman who was walking alone.
In some attacks police say the suspect has a weapon.
"Obviously this guy is a coward. He is clearly attacking women from behind and using a knife to overpower them," Philadelphia Police Lt. John Walker said.
The attacks and robberies have upset women living in Overbrook Park.
"[The neighborhood] is full of families and working class people so to hear someone is going around and assaulting women, it's unnerving," neighbor Star Hamilton said.
"I have young children and they get off the school bus and they have to walk home and it's dark when they get off the bus so it's very upsetting to me," neighbor Yolanda Lancaster said.
Police are still on the hunt for other suspects.
