Woman dragged during Walmart purse-snatching

ORANGE CITY, Fla. — Orange City police said they arrested a serial purse snatcher, who knocked a 77-year-old woman to the ground.

Surveillance video shows a man dragging the woman, as he grabbed her purse at an Orange City Walmart.

Rose Miranda was getting into her car when she was dragged out and onto the asphalt parking lot.

Her head is swollen and she has a cut on her chin -- but she said she is recovering.

Miranda took a hard fall. Her head is swollen and she has a cut on her chin.

She didn't go to the hospital, but did have some choice words for her attacker.

"I'm going to say drop dead and do that to your mom. You don't like to do that to your mom now, right?" said Miranda.

Miranda said she is happy man Michael Scheafer, 20, is behind bars.

"I didn't touch nothing. Is this what this is all about, for real?" Schaefer said as he was led away by police.

"Did you snatch a woman's purse at Walmart?" WFTV reporter Blaine Tolison asked Scheafer.

"No," Scheafer replied.

Police said Scheafer later admitted stealing purses from two women.

Surveillance video shows a man believed to be Scheafer stealing from a 66-year-old woman in the same Walmart parking lot on Tuesday. For just a second, she turned her back to her purse in her shopping cart.

"He obviously saw this. He ran up between the vehicles grabbed her purse, got into a getaway vehicle and left," said Orange City Police Commander Jason Sampsel.

Miranda was holding her purse and said she didn't want to let go.

"He pull like that, he pull like that and then I start screaming," said Miranda.

Investigators said in both cases Scheafer was wearing the same shirt and got into the same SUV that the Volusia county sheriff's office tracked down. The driver Cody Russell, 19, was also arrested.

Scheafer is charged with robbery and grand theft.

Russell is charged with principle to robbery.

Both are in jail with $2,500 bonds.

WFTV