Enraged daughter A purse snatcher at Kualoa Regional Park may live to regret preying on the mother of a fledgling artist.
draws face of
mom’s mugger
She jumped on the getaway car
after her visiting mother was
attacked in a restroomBy Rod Antone
rantone@starbulletin.comUnable to stop her mother's assailant Wednesday, Karen, a 38-year-old Kailua artist, took matters into her own able hands and drew composites of the suspect and his car. Police were so impressed that CrimeStoppers issued her drawings yesterday to alert the public.
To Karen, they are pictures of a 300-pound man she refers to as the "coward" who attacked her 66-year-old mother in a park bathroom.
"I wish I could have kicked his ass," she said. "I can't believe my mother came all the way from New York to get mugged here."
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Now, her mother cannot go home because security will not let her through to the gates at Honolulu Airport because the thief stole her identification, said Karen, who did not want her last name used since the suspect is still at large.Karen and her mother, who was visiting from Manhattan, were taking pictures of Mokolii (Chinaman's Hat) from the park Wednesday when Karen noticed a man waiting in the parking lot.
A victim of eight or nine muggings herself, Karen said she was suspicious and made sure to "keep an eye on him."
After some picture taking, Karen's mother said she needed to use the bathroom, while Karen went to her car. Karen said the man walked into the ladies' bathroom after her mother.
"I shouted 'Hey, what are you doing?' Then from inside the bathroom I heard my mother screaming."
Karen saw the man run out of the bathroom carrying her mother's purse.
Besides holding her mother's identification, passport and money, the purse also was an important memento for the family. It had belonged to Karen's older sister, who was killed several years ago.
Furious, Karen said she tried unsuccessfully to tackle her mother's assailant.
She said the man had a female accomplice who was waiting for him in the driver's seat of a car. Later, Karen realized, they were parked in a handicapped stall.
"I should have noticed that sooner," she said, "those jerks."
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Karen said she jumped on the car, pounded on it and almost managed to tear the rear window wiper off. Despite her efforts, the suspects took off in what Karen described -- and drew -- as a white, rusty, older-model two-door hatchback that may be a possible late-'80s model Chevy Prism."I was trying to damage the car to make it more identifiable," Karen said, "because they had a towel or something covering their rear license plate, so I couldn't read it."
Karen found out later that the suspect grabbed her mother from behind and slammed her repeatedly into the wall. Luckily, she said, her mother suffered bruises but no broken bones.
CrimeStoppers is asking for the public's help in identifying both suspects and is using Karen's own composite of the male suspect and the vehicle. The male suspect is described as in his 30s, 6 feet 3 inches, 300 pounds with black hair, a mustache and a muscular build. He was last seen in a black tank-top, blue shorts and slippers.
The female suspect is described as also in her 30s with a thin build and brown complexion. She was seen wearing a baseball cap and a long-sleeved dress shirt.
Karen said she hopes someone can help find both suspects and recover her mother's purse because she says without identification, her mother cannot get through Honolulu Airport security. "The people we talked to at the airport said they couldn't accept a police report instead of identification," she said. "They let a guy on the plane with a bomb in his shoe, but they can't let my mother go home."
Karen said she cannot believe this robber took so much in so little time.
"It was a physical attack. They took something that was an irreplaceable memento of someone who's dead. My mom was trying to get away from the destruction of 9/11, and now it looks like she can't get back."
Anyone with any information on this case is asked to call CrimeStoppers at 955-8300 or *CRIME on a cellular phone.