She opened her car door at the mall, then two men grabbed her purse

Two men snatched a purse from a woman as she was opening her car door in a west Wichita mall parking lot Monday night, police said.

A 52-year-old woman was opening her car door in the J.C. Penney parking lot at around 6:45 p.m. Monday at Towne West Square on West Kellogg when two men pulled up in a light-colored vehicle, Officer Charley Davidson said. One man reached through his window and grabbed the woman’s purse from her shoulder, jerking it away as they fought.

The men drove away once they took the purse.

The woman’s husband was on the phone with a credit card company as one of the cards was used in an attempted purchase at a west Wichita Valero station, Davidson said.

A police report listed a black Relic purse with a braided handle, a shiny tri-fold wallet, credit and debit cards, a Samsung cellphone and paperwork among the stolen items.

Police are searching for two suspects, both black. Davidson described the first as a 6-foot-tall man with a clean-cut beard wearing a red DuPont jacket with black sleeves, a red and gray stocking cap with a fuzzy ball on the top and black pants, and the second as a 6-foot-tall man with short dreadlocks wearing a red sweater with “Kansas” printed on the front and black pants.

Davidson said police may release surveillance camera footage from the Valero station.

Police ask anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 316-267-2111.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 2:25 PM with the headline "She opened her car door at the mall, then two men grabbed her purse."