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Alleged Purse-Snatching Sisters-In-Crime Strike Again

Posted: 10:56 pm EDT June 23, 2009Updated: 4:42 pm EDT June 24, 2009

Investigators say two violent purse-snatchers targeted and attacked two elderly women in store parking lots just miles apart.

Investigators are looking for 20-year-old Cynthia Teague and 19-year-old Lovetta Teague, who they believe targeted two elderly women in Lake County Tuesday.

The sisters, officers say, are suspected of robbing 12 victims.


SLIDESHOW: Surveillance Images Show Purse Snatchers Attack Elderly Woman
RAW VIDEO: Wal-Mart Surveillance Captures Attack

A third accomplice, 19-year-old Johnicia Albury, is in the Orange County jail and is being held with no bond. The alleged sisters-in-crime were identified to police by Albury on Monday.

The suspects are accused of preying on women outside of local stores across Central Florida.

Victoria Moody was attacked as she walked to her car at the Publix grocery store on State Road 441 in Leesburg. The female suspect yanked so hard on the 85-year-old’s purse that the straps cut her arms, but Moody would not let go.

“I couldn't believe that someone would do that to a person my age,” Moody said.

Mount Dora police believe the two women then drove eight miles down the road to a Wal-Mart in a silver Jeep Liberty. The same vehicle was seen on surveillance cameras at several other attacks.

One of the women approached an elderly woman as she was putting her groceries away. In a matter of seconds, the suspect yanked the purse from Lila Gifford, pulling the 93-year-old woman to the ground, police said.

"I think the thing that amazed me the most is that nobody got the license number of the SUV," said Gifford's friend Helga Javra.

No one saw the attack. Gifford lied on the scorching hot asphalt for at least 30 seconds. The 93-year-old woman was hospitalized with a broken arm and and third-degree burns on her hands, according to investigators.

Detectives believe the women could be connected to a similar attack on an 88-year-old woman in Kissimmee. In that case, Albury grabbed the woman’s purse, while the two others waited in the getaway car, police said. The helpless elderly woman fell trying to chase after Albury.

The victims said the attacks make them think twice about their shopping habits.

“I won't come out on my own if there's a bagger available,” Moody said.

Police are asking anyone who may have information about Cynthia and Lovetta Teague to call 1-800-423-TIPS. There is a cash reward for information that leads to an arrest.

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