Swanville teen charged in Belfast purse theft

BELFAST – A 15-year-old Swanville boy was taken to a juvenile detention facility after police said he assaulted a Belfast woman while trying to snatch her purse Saturday afternoon.

The assault on Sylvia Bavis, 57, occurred at Renys Plaza at 4:35 p.m. and was seen by a number of witnesses, Police Chief Allen Weaver said Monday.

Bavis had been shopping at a Mr. Paperback bookstore and was on her way to her car when the youth ran up to her and tried to snatch her purse. The purse was slung over Bavis’ shoulder and she instinctively resisted when the boy grabbed hold.

“He yanked the purse and started running,” Weaver said. “She started running along with him but could not keep up. She fell to the ground but continued to maintain her grip on the purse.”

Bavis sustained cuts and abrasions to her right hand and received treatment in the parking lot by Belfast Ambulance rescue personnel.

Bavis told police that as she was resisting her attacker, she heard several people holler, ‘Call 911,'” Weaver said.

The attacker fled south on U.S. Route 1 in a maroon Toyota pickup. Witnesses at the scene gave police a partial license plate number of the fleeing vehicle. A few minutes later, Waldo County Deputy Sheriff Merl Reed spotted the vehicle at Belfast Variety on High Street and confronted the driver and his passenger.

Reed and Belfast police Officer Ray Porter questioned the two juveniles and the one fitting the description of Bavis’ attacker admitted trying to take her purse, police said. Police determined that the other youth, a 17-year-old from Stockton Springs, had no involvement in the attack and let him go, Weaver said.

During the questioning at Belfast Variety, Reed videotaped the two youths and returned to Reny’s to show it to Bavis and the witnesses. Each of them identified the Swanville boy as the purse snatcher.

The boy was arrested on charges of robbery and assault and booked at the Waldo County Jail. He was later transferred to the Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston pending a court hearing.