Fatal Purse Snatchings |
Email text contributed by Zoe Donovan, 3 Nov. 2000:
|
WARNING TO ALL WOMEN!!!!!!!!!!! I just saw a segment of "Oprah" reporting on the deaths of at least 14 women in the United States due to broken necks from usually harmless purse snatching!! Women who wear their purse straps across their chests rather than over their shoulders are at risk for broken necks and, possibly, decapitation!! Purse snatchers' usual method of operation involves approaching an unsuspecting woman, quickly pulling her purse from her shoulder, and fleeing the scene. Purse snatchers do not check to see if the purse is around the woman's neck first!! Purse straps will not break, your neck most likely will!!!!!! Fourteen women have already died!! Beware!!! The first reported case of a purse strap-related death occurred in Los Angeles in 1987. A young woman was leaving a local mall when a man mistakenly broke her neck in an attempt to steal her purse, which was holding a measly $20!!!!! X-rays revealed the woman's neck was nearly severed in two! Another woman in 1988 suffered not only a twice fractured neck bone, but a completely shattered jaw! One woman survived this grisly ordeal only to be left quadriplegic for life!! The scariest news is that with purse snatching on the rise, 6 deaths were reported just over the past year!!! Remember this: more purse snatchings are reported during Christmas time than any other season. Please tell your mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends: DO NOT WEAR YOUR PURSE STRAP ACROSS YOUR CHEST!!!! |
Comments: We searched in vain for "purse snatchings" among the listed topics on Oprah Winfrey's show during the past six months. We also looked in vain for news articles proving there have been six deaths this year related to purse snatchings. And we looked in vain for any logic whatsoever to this warning.
Barring purses with industrial-strength straps, the statement "Purse straps will not break, your neck most likely will" is absurd; the suggestion that a victim could be decapitated even more so. X-rays are not required to diagnose that someone's neck has been nearly severed in two. If you wear your purse strap across your chest, it's your chest, back and shoulder that will bear the brunt of the force if someone tries to yank it away, not your neck.
Where injuries do occur during the commission of this crime, they're usually minor and result from the victim being pulled or pushed to the ground. In the rare cases where fatalities have occurred, they were due to the victim being physically attacked or dragged when they would not relinquish the purse. In one 1999 case, a victim died after her attacker ran over her with his car as she tried to recover her belongings.
With malicious irony, the message implies that it's safer for women to wear their purse straps over one shoulder than across their chests. Following that advice simply makes them easier to steal.
