COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — On Monday, a Lakeview woman lost her husband to a long illness.
On Tuesday night, the woman's family wanted to get her out of the house — to lift her spirits and get some food in the "very tired and very sad" new widow.
So, when a purse snatcher ruined the night by ripping a vintage French Givenchy purse out of her hand as she walked to her favorite restaurant, Wood, in Lakeview, she vowed to do what she could to "get the punk off the street."
The 61-year-old widow, who asked that her name not be used, chased the thief, yelling for onlookers to call 911. When police arrived, she rode with them and eventually identified a 21-year-old man now charged in the crime.
"My brother and I resolved to get the punk off the street. We belong on the street, not them," she said. "This is our society. Do you want to be a lamb or a lion?"
Having spent her waking hours tending to her ill husband, the woman said she'd been neglecting her own needs.
"The family wanted me to eat," she said, explaining that she had planned to take her brother-in-law to Wood to decompress.
"We were very tired and very sad," she said. "I put some lipstick on for the first time in a long time, put on a nice outfit for the first time and remembered I was alive."
"We were going to have a big dinner," the woman said. "We wanted to reclaim a moment in life."
The two were walking in the 3400 block of North Halsted Street when they saw a young man sitting on the curb, she said. A moment after they passed, the man came up behind her and grabbed her purse.
"I didn't let go," the woman said, recalling how the purse snatcher twisted her finger and broke a nail as he tore the small bag from her grip.
The man took off running, and the woman followed, yelling for onlookers to call 911, she said.
The police arrived and asked the woman if she had the Find My iPhone app, she said. Her daughter, a criminologist, and her son-in-law, a "tech guru," were in town due to her husband's illness.
They tracked her iPhone to a restaurant in the 3200 block of North Broadway, where 21-year-old Robert Vacha was found, authorities said.
"Police cars came and busted him while he was in the restaurant," the woman said. "Then they put us in a police car and zoomed us over there. It was unbelievable."
Cook County Assistant State's Attorney Erin Antonietti, during a brief court hearing, said Vacha dropped the woman's credit card while in the restaurant.
Both the woman and the brother-in-law identified Vacha, of Washington Park, as the purse snatcher, she said.
And the woman got her purse back.
A "very tall, very tough" officer in a bulletproof vest returned her quilted, box-shaped evening bag to her. "So cute," she said.
Vacha, who appeared Wednesday in court, was charged with robbery of a person over 60 years old and ordered held on $250,000 bail.
"What he didn't know is I am a senior citizen," the woman said. "Now that he attacked an old lady, I'm happy because now it is a serious crime."
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