Students and instructors from the Chattanooga Jiu-Jitsu Academy apprehended a teenage purse snatcher who targeted an elderly woman outside a Dollar Tree parking lot on Saturday morning.
The incident occurred at the Ashland Terrace shopping center on Hixson Pike, where the suspect attempted to steal a purse from Sheri Streety, a woman in her late 70s, knocking her to the ground in the process. News Channel 9 was first to report.
“I thought, no, you’re not getting my bag,” said Streety, demonstrating remarkable resilience. “We’re gonna struggle. You may get it but we’re gonna struggle. You’re not gonna get it easy.”
What the young perpetrator didn’t realize was that his attempted theft took place directly in front of the Chattanooga Jiu-Jitsu Academy. Nicole McCamish, who witnessed the incident, immediately sprang into action.
“I was like, ‘yo yo yo,’ because they were all on the mat already. And then I see the woman running after him, and that’s when I just took off out the door,” McCamish recounted.
While McCamish attended to Streety, seven academy members, including an off-duty Chattanooga Police officer, pursued and successfully detained the teenager using their trained techniques until police arrived.
“He was very compliant. And at that point, I think he was ready for the whole thing to be over with,” McCamish added.
Mickey Swafford, one of the academy members, explained their quick response: “I think about, what would I want somebody else to do? What if that was my daughter, my mother, my grandmother. I think as a society, we owe it to ourselves to stand up for one another and help each other out where we can.”
Lieutenant Jason Wood of the Chattanooga Police Department, who was off-duty at the time, participated in the intervention and had a message for the suspect: “I hope this is the first and last time he ever decides to make any poor decision like this.”
Streety, grateful for the intervention, shared her own message for the teen: “Crime doesn’t pay.” As for her rescuers from the academy, she expressed profound gratitude: “Oh my gosh, they’re my heroes, I’m telling you. I just, I was overwhelmed when it was over.”
