Residents in Pleasant Grove are concerned about two very similar robberies in which women have been targeted after leaving a local grocery store.
The attacks happened within eight days of each other and in broad daylight.
The first attack happened Sept. 8, when a woman pulled into her driveway after leaving Foodland on Lake June Road. The victim's neighbor, Robin Johnson, said as the woman got out of her car she was met by a man armed with a gun.
“(He) put a gun to her chest and said, ‘Don’t make me hurt you. Give me your purse!’” said Johnson.
Johnson happened to be at her home across the street when the robbery took place. She looked out her window and noticed someone running, but didn't think twice.
“Next thing I know is I see a black male just running across the yard this way, and I didn't think anything of it because her alley is right here; people cut across the yard all the time. And [it] turns out I was witnessing her being robbed and had no idea,” said Johnson.
That is, until her neighbor, a woman in her 60s, came over asking for help.
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“(She) came across the street frantic and we called the police,” said Johnson.
Then just this past Monday, Miriam Martinez’s mother had a similar attack. She left the same local grocery store, pulled into her driveway and was held up.
“He had a pistol or gun; he put it to my mom’s neck,” said Martinez.
The thief ran off with her mother’s purse and sense of security.
“Now she's like even scared to go out, that's how we feel,” said Martinez.
Meanwhile Johnson is afraid it could happen again.
“This is bad, really bad. I just don't want it to escalate and someone get hurt,” she said.
Dallas police said they have noticed some similarities, but haven’t been able to confirm if both cases are related. They said one case has a detective assigned, but the other does not and that investigators have had difficulty getting in contact with both victims.
