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Good Samaritans credited with stopping purse snatching outside Walmart

ROSTRAVER TOWNSHIP., Pa. — Two men are credited with helping to capture a theft suspect.

“I was holding onto my purse and putting two bags in, and he just came out of nowhere,” said Donna Greenawalt. “He grabbed my purse and took off.”

Greenawalt, 73, was standing next to her car Monday afternoon in the parking lot of the Walmart in Rostraver Township, Westmoreland County, when she was accosted.

She told Channel 11’s Melanie Gillespie that she wasn’t going to let the thief get away. She ran after the thief and called for help.

“I screamed, the loudest I could scream,” she said. “(I was) yelling, ‘He got my purse, he has my purse. Please help me! Somebody help me!’”

Two men chased the accused thief down and tackled him. They held him until police got to the scene.

Don Maglet was one of those guys. He told Gillespie he heard the woman scream and it was his instinct to jump into action.

“I come down to the other side of the road and there’s some bigger guy who jumped on top of him,” Maglet said. “He yelled, ‘You’re hurting me. You’re hurting me.’ And I said, ‘I don’t care. You’re not going nowhere until police get here.’”

Greenwalt didn't know the name of the good Samaritans who stepped in to help, but said it restored her faith in humanity.

“I’m so grateful, so grateful,” Greenawalt said. “There are good people out there to help you out.”

Police identified the accused as Phillip Jumbelick III.

According to the criminal complaint, he admitted to officers that he "took that lady’s purse" minutes after he was taken into custody.