Andre Fidanza,40, and Marco DiCioccio, 41 run a Wheelchair Service store on Main Street East, here in Hamilton. They help clients with physical disabilities. That's not the only thing that makes these guys heros.
At the end of a busy workday Tuesday when a man on a bicycle flashed by their window clutching a woman's purse, followed by a woman, screaming she had been robbed.
Police have been scouring central Hamilton for a purse-snatcher who attacked elderly women by riding up behind them, knocking them down and stealing their valuables. Eight women, mostly in their 70s and 80s, have been robbed since last Thursday. One woman was 90. One elderly woman's wrist was broken. Others ended up with scrapes and bruises. All were left emotionally shaken.
A drug addict had gone on a crack cocaine binge and was responsible. Lethargically, the cops waited until the second victim was assaulted to set up a task force to catch him.
On Tuesday afternoon, a bike-riding mugger robbed an 85-year-old woman in the morning, then snatched the purse from a middle-aged woman stepping off an HSR bus at Main Street East near Andre's Wheelchair Service at Ferguson Avenue.
The dinamic duo are men of action and decided to jump in their crime fighting van and went after him.
Seriously, Fidanza echoed many Hamilton citizens when he was aquoted as saying "He is tired of the drug addicts and crime swirling around his store. This was just the right thing to do, he said. Even more so because so many of the victims are vulnerable seniors.
The mugger pedalled west on Main against the traffic. The wheelchair guys did some quick thinking and guessed the crook might double back. They headed up Ferguson then drove several blocks toward downtown on Hunter Street.
"Sure enough, he pulls right in front of us on the corner of Catharine and Hunter," Fidanza said. "He tried to elude me, but I was right on his rear end. He was terrified."
In desperation, the robber threw the purse away and tried to escape by making a wild dash across opposite lanes under the rail bridge at Catharine and Hunter. He succeeded in jumping one curb, but not a second. The mugger went one way and his bike went another.
As DiCioccio went to gather up the woman's purse, Fidanza followed the thief on foot.
"I told him, 'C'mon, buddy, just lie down. ... I can do this all day,'" he said. "I wasn't even breaking a sweat, but this guy couldn't even breathe."
The robber gave up, and his pursuers, with help from several other passersby, held him until police arrived.
Kenneth Lloyd, 43, of no fixed address, has been charged with one count of robbery and breach of probation.
Acting Detective Sergeant Dave Brady praised the citizens. "We're grateful for their assistance, but at the same time we have to cautiously warn the public that we don't want to see anyone hurt unnecessarily."
This isn't much, these guys should be given awards from their city and praised for their actions.
Story from the Hamilton Spectator
Later,
Kenaz
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