It was 7:55PM.  I just finished dinner with my parents.  There was a series of urgent knocks on my door.  I opened the door to see my next door neighbor, Little Qiao, standing in front of me.  She was almost crying: "Someone broke my car window ... ", and she turned to my mom and said, "... and took my purse. "  Shocked, I went out with her to the yard.  It was at dusk, and the sky was still bright blue with the last tint of the evening sun.  There it was, her Mazda with a window completely broken on the driver's side.  She told me just when she stopped the engine to park her car in the yard after getting back from grocery shopping, a young black guy knocked on her car window.  Scared, she pushed down the button to lock the door.  When she was trying to yell for help, the guy broke her window with a stone in his hand, took her purse, and ran away.

 

I gave her my cell phone to call 911.  While she was describing on the phone with more details about what happened, I noticed that she was bleeding in the right forearm.  She might have been hurt by the broken shreds of glass.  After a while, a bunch of friends came to help.   Fifteen minutes later, three police cars arrived. 

 

Now, two hours later, the police had collected the information they need, tried to track down the suspect.  I went back home.  With some hindsight, after the initial shock, it was quite a scary experience.  At least I know I won't feel secure for quite a while in the future standing in the yard after 8PM. 

 

The suspect is a young black guy in early twenties, slender build, around 5'10' to 6' tall, with a mustache.  He was wearing a white T-shirt and dark short pants (or maybe pants)  when the robbery took place.   Those who live in Middletown Memphis, please beware of this, and be careful.   If you have some more clue about the suspect, please call the police.

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Follow up story:

The robber was caught two weeks later and sent to prison after a court trial.  His image was captured by a surveillance camera when he was fleeing after the robbery. 

The University of Memphis Police Services issued a safety alert on September 22, 2009, stating that there had been four (4) reported armed robberies since September 17th, just south of the Main Campus, in the Spottswood and Kearney area. There were two additional robberies reported earlier this month a few blocks west of campus, along the Highland Row.