NORFOLK
Jeanette Balazsi was so determined to get her stolen purse back that she wound up clinging to the hood of the getaway car like a stunt woman in a Hollywood action scene.
It wasn't the way the Navy wife and Norfolk legal assistant planned on spending Sunday. After church, she stopped at a Food Lion at Bromley Shopping Center for groceries.
She didn't think anything of it when she kept bumping into the same woman in the aisles - even when the woman seemed to always need something where she was standing. When she realized her purse was gone, she yelled for people to stop the woman.
Two Food Lion employees gave chase and Balazsi wasn't far behind. Outside, she saw the woman trying to close the door of a car while struggling with a store employee.
Balazsi stood in front of the car so she couldn't pull off. But the woman started driving forward and Balazsi jumped on the hood to keep from getting hit.
"She just kept going," she said. "She went straight on out of the parking lot, and I grabbed hold of the hood where it meets the window."
The car bumped over an access road. And then the woman turned onto Military Highway. "That's the moment when I'm thinking ' What have I got myself into?' "
Balazsi said the woman accelerated, then slammed on the brakes.
"She was trying to throw me off. Then she floored it again and she swerved back and forth to shake me," she said. "I just held on for dear life."
She knew the car was going too fast to jump off. A woman in the passenger seat was screaming.
"I don't know if she was screaming at me or if she was screaming at the driver."
Balazsi was screaming too. The car slowed enough for a sharp turn into a neighborhood.
She swung her legs over and tried to land on her feet, bracing herself for the breaks of bones when she tumbled off. Except for scrapes and bruises, though, she was alright. The car, meanwhile, headed on.
A Mapquest query listed the distance from the market to the intersection roughly a quarter mile.
A man on a Harley came by and Balazsi said, "Follow that lady!" Others stopped to help, too.
The car came back, headed in the opposite direction. People jumped out of the way and called authorities with the license plate number. The car turned back onto Military Highway with the Harley on its tail.
Chris Amos, a spokesman for the Norfolk Police Department, said the car hit another car and the motorcycle that was following, but no one was hurt. He said police followed a short time until the car crashed at the on-ramp of Interstate 64 from Chesapeake Boulevard.
Police arrested Jennifer Leigh Jones, 32, of the 1100 block of Elk Ave., on charges of eluding police, attempt to commit a non-capital offense, third-offense larceny, and child abuse and neglect, all felonies. Police say there was a 1-year-old child in the car. She was also charged with driving under the influence and two misdemeanor charges of hit and run with property damage.
She is being held in the Norfolk City Jail without bond.
The woman who was a passenger was not charged.
Balazsi said her wallet was found under the seat of the car. The purse and other items had been thrown from the car, she said.
"There was no money in it anyway," Balazsi said.
She was more worried about identity theft, charge cards, and the principle of it, she said.
She didn't want the thief getting away with it.
She never saw the man on the Harley again.
"I would love to speak to him and tell him thank you," she said.
People make comments about the bad things people do, she said.
"But for that one bad person, there were like 10 people who stopped to help me."
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marym63204
Please read this article again. The child was not in the car alone. There was a passenger who was in the car with the child while the woman was in the store stealing.
The baby
Something no one has mentioned is that the baby does not appear to have been in the store during the theft, but she suddenly showed up in the car when the mom drove it away. Are you thinking what I'm thinking? The scum did one additional thing almost worse than everything else. She left her kid in the car on a hot day when she could have been boiled to death while her mama was in the Food Lion stealing.
discretion is the better part of valor
Why am I not surprised that so many arm chair heroes are using this story as an opportunity to crow about their (largely potential) personal bravery while blaming the ills of the world on anyone who questions the wisdom of clinging to the hood of a car to retrieve a purse.
My take: In my miss spent youth I chased and engaged many shoplifters out into dark parking lots. I understand the impulse and don't regret that I did it. However, a friend of mine got stabbed while chasing a shop lifter. He was out of commission for a good long time and his health has been permanently damaged. The shoplifter-turned-attempted murderer got away, but in stabbing my friend (and wracking him up for life) he dropped the 5 dollar pack of pork chops he was trying to steal. This is an example of when someone did something stupid (chasing this guy alone into a dark parking lot) for a good reason (stopping the crime) but to a bad result (a life time of health problems). Moral vindication aside, Five dollars worth of pork chops were not worth it. My friend would take his actions back in a heart beat. This makes him a coward by the definitions floated below.
This comment is awaiting staff approval.
On second thought, maybe we should just cooperate with criminals, and give them what they want, like Elisabeth Kelly Reilly did...
http://hamptonroads.com/2008/10/man-who-killed-woman-hilltop-parking-lot-gets-2-life-terms
hey joannek23456 can i have
hey joannek23456 can i have your purse then.
Archie is correct ...
nivlo told Archie, "Losing your life is not worth it, unless of course your life is worth less than a wallet".
Good gosh. People do things all the time that could cause them to die. Sky diving and driving cars are two examples. Are you so terrified of criminals that you would bet your life on their mercy?
In the past three years I have used my .45 Auto to stop the purse snatching of my disabled daughter, and the robbery by two gang-bangers of my favorite restaurant. I could have been killed both times. Neither the purse nor the till were worth my life, but WHO CARES??? The robbers could have gotten what they wanted, and then killed all of us witnesses! Letting criminals determine my fate, or the fate of strangers around me, is unacceptable.
Cowering is for cowards. I would much rather die, than to live the life of a coward. But to those of you who believe differently, all I can say is, “To each his own”.
What was she thinking?
According to many of the posters here you pay off the bully, watch people get hurt without helping and try to convince people that cowards are heroes. All this, and you sit back over cocktails and ruminate as to why society is getting so bad. Do something or your the problem just as much as the criminal! Isn't it nice that our country has evolved into such self-centeredness, that as long as we survive we can sleep at night. Wait, who's that breaking in your door? Bet you wish you had a neighbor who cared right now!
I'm glad this woman said enough with the bullmess, I don't have victim tattooed on my heart. Wow, and a hero on a Harley to boot! Sorry for all the posters who got pushed around in grade school, but it's time to get some heart.
Ok I'll bite...
Didn't that Jesus guy say, "turn the other cheek"? Was he kidding when he said that, but dead serious about discriminating against gays? I'm confused...
Yeah yeah yadda yadda approval is pending...
Archie....
Go ahead and call the news stations and give them the proper spelling of your name so they report it correctly when you end up getting killed trying to stop a thief. Losing your life is not worth it, unless of course your life is worth less than a wallet.
What a story
I am so gald the victim is alive and okay. But, she's still be violated. The woman that stole her purse and had the nerve to continue driving, will probably have her child taken into foster care. No excuse in stealing here - go to a church, Union Mission, someplace. But, nevertheless, she will problem not be charged due to mental issues. Then WE ALL pay for the child's wellbeing and the mom's illness - forget the criminal acts. She'll most likely get off the hook.
I'm trying to see both sides
I'm trying to see both sides of this story, but I honestly can't understand how far some posters are willing to go to stop a theft - like fighting to the death. Getting killed sure is going to teach that theif a lesson now isn't it!!! The child in the car is definitely another matter, but it sounds like no one knew about the child in the car until it was all over. This whole incident was not about the child, it was about the purse and I just don't get that. Take my purse - I'll keep my life, thank you very much.
Lack of Principle
I understand completely the desire, the need to do whatever one can no matter how small the crime. It is the principle of the situation that compels action by the victim and all witnesses.
Those who commented that the purse or the money was not worth the action are unprincipled or too cowardly to stop criminals. The only way to stop crime at the citizen level is to not cooperate with a criminal no matter what. If I am approached by an armed mugger and my wallet is completely empty, that mugger will not get that wallet without shooting me or somehow over-powering me. I will resist; I will fight to the best of my ability. I will not cooperate. I will not, never will cooperate with a criminal. I may lose that fight, or even m y life, but I will never cooperate with a criminal.
Why anyone would is beyond me. Criminals thrive on our fear and our cooperation, and our stupidly leaving doors and windows unlocked, we even cooperate when we watch a crime taking place without interfering in some way.
Did I mention that I will never cooperate with a criminal?
3rd Offense
If you read the list of charges it states THIRD OFFENSE LARCENY. That means she has done this before. I am sure it will not be a slap on her wrist this time.
Good for you!
What a gutsy lady! If more people refused to be victims, if more people were willing to pull together to help one another, I wonder whether crime of opportunity would be so prevalent. I hope they throw the book at the nasty little thief who put the safety of her own child, in addition to several bystanders, at risk in such a manner.
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda
Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda... Instead of bickering about what Jeanette did, what could have happened, blah, blah, blah...let's just all be thankful the "bad guy" got caught, strangers willingly helped out, and the story has a happy ending (aside from the perpetrator's kid). I'm quite certain Jeanette has replayed the scene a thousand times in her mind and knows better than any of us how it could have played out.
Just happens...
I am sure she didn't plan on jumping in the hood of the car, it probably just happened. No matter how ready you are and think that you know what you are going to do in certain situations, sometimes you just never know what will happen until you are in that position. It's good to know that she's safe and also to know that there are people out there who are still willing to help. To them, I say, I wish there are more of you out there.
This comment is awaiting staff approval.
Cheryl Meril Jenkins wrote, "it's not worth it to directly combat these kind of criminals".
That's exactly why criminals are so brazen today. Criminals believe that most people believe what you believe. Unfortunately, they're correct.
The only time we can combat criminals is when they commit their crimes, thereby exposing themselves as criminals. FIGHT BACK, people! We have run out of other options. Those other options have yielded a society where we can be killed at any moment over our tennis shoes. When criminals expose themselves in public, GO INTO ATTACK MODE and FIGHT BACK!!!
Good job, lady! You weren't
Good job, lady! You weren't about to let this scum get away with it. I am very glad you stuck with it, and the perpetrator is now put away. Thank you to everyone involved!
Attempted Murder
Why wasn't the driver charged with attempted murder. Didn't she try to run the woman over?
Congrats (Contd)
Then there are sheepdogs and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf. Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, “We intimidate those who intimidate others.”
If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath–a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.