'I felt my teeth break': Woman aggressively robbed in parking lot near Baybrook Mall
FRIENDSWOOD, Texas (KTRK) -- A day of errands turned into a nightmare for one shopper after getting into a tussle with a robber in a parking lot near Baybrook Mall on Monday afternoon.
Joy Shipwash said she was minding her own business when a man pushed her from behind near her car and told her to hand over her belongings in the Baybrook Square shopping center.
"I'm screaming bloody murder, I felt my teeth break," Shipwash recalled. "I thought it was a joke. And I turned around and saw this face I did not know, and I took my umbrella and I shoved it in his stomach. He was right here, in my face."
In her face and with a screwdriver in hand, the victim said the robber pushed her to the ground, face first, and jumped in a getaway car.
"He could've hurt me really bad and would have, because the look in his eyes when he (came) up with that screwdriver. I don't know why I was fighting, I couldn't have stopped him. He was twice as big as me," Shipwash told Eyewitness News.
But she isn't the only victim of an aggressive purse snatching this week in the same area.
Houston police confirm that another woman also fell victim at the actual Baybrook Mall parking lot on Tuesday evening.
Officials say it happened just across the street from where Joy was robbed 24 hours earlier, but say it's unclear if it's the same group of criminals terrorizing the area.
The suspect descriptions are vague.
Data from the ABC13 Neighborhood Safety Tracker shows there have been 25 robberies in this area in the last 12 months, which is average for the last two years.
Shipwash is wearing the battle scars of that terrifying encounter and has to undergo some extensive dental work, which she says will cost her $3,000.
Now, she said she will be taking extra precautions when going out.
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