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Exclusive: Woman, 77, Shaken After Purse Snatching On Upper East Side

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) - Surveillance video captures two young women smiling and running away after allegedly stealing a 77-year-old woman's purse on the Upper East Side.

It happened Wednesday at around 11:30 a.m. on First Avenue at East 77th Street.

Police said the suspects grabbed the victim's purse and ran off.

"I said, 'she took my bag, she took my bag, she took my bag,'" Farida Nassar told CBS2's Alice Gainer in an exclusive interview.

The women got away with a cell phone, credit cards and $465 in cash.

"They took my rosary and they took the picture of my husband, my late husband," Nassar said.

Someone found her purse in a nearby garbage can. They contacted relatives on social media and were able to return it.

"You shook me up. It was scary. I'm not young, I'm still not well," she said. You shouldn't do something like this to anybody."

Nassar was accompanied by a health aide and was in Manhattan for medical reasons. She was supposed to return for another appointment Friday morning, but said she's too shaken up and cancelled.

Anyone with any information is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or 1-888-57-PISTA (74782) for Spanish. You can also submit a tip via the Crime Stoppers website, or by texting a tip to 274637 (CRIMES) and then entering TIP577.

All calls are kept confidential.

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