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An elderly Tauranga woman chased after a group of teenage thieves when they grabbed her wallet and ran away.
The 80-year-old, who asked not to be named, chased the offenders from where she was attacked at shops in the suburb of Welcome Bay. She said yesterday she could not have reacted any other way.
"I ran after them and I said, 'come back here you little devils', but of course they wouldn't," she said. " I was so wild."
"Then I started to shake, and I went all white, and somebody said, 'are you all right?' And I said, 'no, I'm not, I'm angry!' I was furious with them."
The woman was not hurt but said she was extremely annoyed that the young thieves got away with her wallet about 2.15pm on Tuesday.
She was ready to put up a fight, had it come to it, and lamented that she hadn't had a better grip on her belongings.
"Why did I just take my wallet? Why didn't I take my handbag? Because that would've been over my shoulder, a little bit harder for them to get out," she said.
Four Square store owner Vikash Chandra, who has been in the area for 10 years, said crime and the number of youths loitering were increasing.
"I wouldn't be surprised if it happens again," he said. "It's getting bad, the whole area is getting bad, it's deteriorating."
Tauranga South community constable Leanne Fairbairn did not recommend chasing an offender in such circumstances.
"The thing is, with a lot of these young fellas, you don't know what they're carrying," she said.
- BAY OF PLENTY TIMES
