Suffolk arrests 2 in Holbrook purse snatching
Police mug shots of John Walsh and Vikki Samsoe (Jan. 22, 2011) Credit: Handout
Suffolk detectives are investigating whether two people arrested this weekend in a Holbrook purse-snatching are responsible for similar crimes in the county.
Late Saturday, Suffolk police jailed John T. Walsh, 40, of East Setauket, and Vikki Samsoe, 41, of Mount Sinai, and charged them with second-degree robbery in the 1 p.m. Friday robbery at Sun-Vet Mall in Holbrook.
Police said a 67-year-old woman was walking to her car from a Pathmark supermarket when a man asked her for directions, and as she began to speak, grabbed her purse.
"She was trying to help him," said Det. Sgt. Bryan McMenemy of the Fifth Squad.
The suspect ran to an older-model, blue-green Pontiac Grand Am, with the woman giving chase. As he got into the car, the woman struggled with him to get her purse back, police said.
"There's fighting between the two of them and he pushes her to the ground," McMenemy said.
The victim had minor injuries and the man escaped in the Grand Am, driven by a woman, police said.
Working off a detailed vehicle description - including a license plate - Fifth Squad detectives found the car's owner, who told them of two people possibly using the car Friday.
Walsh and Samsoe were arrested separately, and were arraigned Sunday at First District Court in Central Islip. Walsh was ordered held on $150,000 bond or $50,000 cash. Samsoe was ordered held on $50,000 bond and $25,000 cash. Detectives said the suspects are being investigated for possible connections to several other purse snatchings in Suffolk County over the past month, but have not been definitively linked.The arrests came the same day Nassau police apprehended a man and woman on suspicion of up to eight purse snatchings in that county.
Alfonso Zitoli, 29, of Massapequa, and Veronica Sarabella, 30, of Deer Park, are charged with several counts of robbery and grand larceny.
Nassau police say the couple, in the last six days, committed drive-by purse snatchings at shopping centers or intersections in Massapequa, Bethpage, Seaford, Hicksville and Levittown.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
Out East with Doug Geed: Wine harvests, a fish market, baked treats and poinsettias NewsdayTV's Doug Geed visits two wineries and a fish market, and then it's time for holiday cheer, with a visit to a bakery and poinsettia greenhouses.
