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Queens Grandmother Refuses To Be Victim After Supermarket Purse Snatching

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A local woman is vowing to get even after a trip to the grocery store ended in a robbery.

Queens grandmother and Holocaust survivor Bertha Presz, 77, of Kew Gardens, was upset Thursday as she flipped through surveillance pictures she said she wants everyone to see.

"Of course I'm upset, you know it was me, he victimized me," Presz told CBS 2's Derricke Dennis.

Police are trying to find a suspect who they said stole Presz's purse while she was shopping at Brach's Glatt Supermarket in Kew Gardens Hills on Aug. 3.

Video showed her leaning over to pick up a carton of eggs when a man came by and casually snatched her purse with money, credit cards and ID inside before walking off.

"It didn't take a second, I turned around and it was gone with my bag," she told 1010 WINS. "I had cash, I had my driver's license, my medical card -- everything you carry in a bag including my check book, my car keys, my cell phone."

But rather than be a victim, she's been hitting the streets and is walking up and down, going into store after store, showing the suspect's picture.

Queens Purse Snatching Suspect
(credit: NYPD)

"I just showed it to the stores, on the side of the store where I was and across the street to those stores, asking them if they recognize the picture of the guy," she said.

She hopes someone recognizes and turns in the 6-foot, 180-pound, white suspect, who was last seen wearing a black T-shirt with white lettering.

Supermarket clerk Meir Berdugo said the suspect in the video picked the wrong woman.

"She seems like a person who takes her property very seriously. She's tough," Berdugo said. "Yeah, definitely she's a tough granny."

Police are now searching for the suspect in the surveillance video. If caught, he's expected to face a grand larceny charge.

Anyone with information should call police or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or visit www.nypdcrimestoppers.com.

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