WEST MELBOURNE, Florida — At approximately 7:40 p.m. on April 24, 2012, a 53-year-old woman was loading her purchases in the back of her vehicle at a Wal Mart parking lot located on 845 Palm Bay Road in West Melbourne, Florida when a white van approached and circled around her.
The van’s passenger grabbed the victim’s purse, dragging the victim over 150 feet across the parking lot as the van sped away. The victim was not seriously hurt. The suspects (the driver and front passenger of the van) got away with the victim’s purse.
Later in the evening, West Melbourne Police spotted a vehicle matching the suspect vehicle description and stopped it. Investigators are reasonably certain the vehicle was the one used in the robbery and the vehicle has been seized. Investigators have “persons of interest” in the case and are hoping to make arrests in the near future.