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Flint Woman Says She Chased Purse Thief In Anger, Gave Birth Hours Later

Mark Newton
Mark Newton (Credit: Flint Police/Facebook)

FLINT (WWJ/AP) - A 22-year-old Flint woman who gave birth to her son hours after a man stole her purse said she chased the mugger down in the grocery store parking lot because it made her "really angry."

Kristen Thompson was robbed in the parking lot of a Kroger grocery store around 1:30 p.m. Sept. 11, when she was nine months pregnant. When she was loading groceries into her truck, a man Thompson had seen inside of the store grabbed her purse from a shopping cart and took off running.

"When it happened, it made me really, really angry," Thompson told the Flint Journal. "I was more mad than anything and determined to get (the purse) back."

Thompson ran after the thief, who fled around the side of the grocery store, and was confronted by him.

"He was right there and he shoved me down," she said. "I got back up and chased after him."

Thompson spotted a couple of familiar bystanders nearby and asked for their help. The two teenage boys chased the man down, retrieved the purse and its contents and restrained the crook -- 30-year-old Mark Newton.

Thompson called her parents, who live in a nearby neighborhood, while another bystander called police. When Thompson's 20-year-old brother Jacob Owenby arrived on the scene with his parents, he reportedly found Newtown and punched him in the face.

"I knocked him out," Owenby told the Flint Journal, saying he held Newton face-down on the ground for about 20 minutes before police arrived.

Newton, of Burton, was arrested and arraigned on one count of unarmed robbery. He was ordered held on $8,000 bond.

After the foiled theft, Thompson started having contractions and was taken to a local hospital. She an emergency cesarean section about six hours later.

Thompson questioned why she was chosen as the target.

"Of all people in the parking lot, why did you pick a pregnant chick?" Thompson said. "I guess he didn't think I'd fight back. He was wrong."

TM and © Copyright 2014 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2014 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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