A Scary Moment in Time

In a brief moment in time, my day went from good to scary. On Wednesay, I was walking down the street in downtown Birmingham to go to my car to leave to go home. As I was walking down the street, I was talking to "my man" on my cell phone and I pulled my keys out of my purse. I looked down the street and saw a man walking towards me. He was well dressed and he smiled at me and I smiled back. Then, everything changed. He moved quickly, bumped my hand, grabbed my purse, I tried to hold on but my arm got jerked backwards, he took off running with my purse, I screamed for him to stop, he turned around, smiled at me and then took off around the corner. Thankfully I had my keys and my cell phone in my hand but in that instant, my entire purse and wallet were gone. A very long story short..I screamed for him to stop, I made the decision not to run after him in case he was armed, the police arrived, viewed video of the incident, apprehended someone who matched the description I gave them, I viewed the man, it was not him, they let him go, and then I had the pleasure (sarcasm) of finishing out sharing the story with the police officer. I am very blessed because the police officer said that since the guy was brazen enough to let me look at him and to turn back and look at me, he was probably armed with a knife. The officer also said that it was fortunate that I did not make it to the parking deck because he probably would have followed me into the deck. I was very shaken up and I have relieved it in my head over and over again thinking about how I could have done things differently but knowing in the end that I did what I should have done..I did not pursue him. So, the moral of the story...always be aware of your surroundings, hold your purse tight to you, keep copies of your cards and a list of your wallet contents at home, and scream as loud as you can if someone violates you or your stuff.