London, Ont. firefighter on Chicago vacation chases down alleged purse snatcher
Gary Martin was trying on a Chicago Cubs hat when a mugger raced by. Martin tackled him and returned the purse. His buddies are already teasing him.
Gary Martin, a London, Ontario firefighter who broke up a mugging while on vacation in Chicago, stands at the spot where he tackled the alleged purse-snatcher. ( PHIL VELASQUEZ / CHICAGO TRIBUNE )
Gary Martin didn’t set out to be a hero – he just thought a man’s handbag clashed with his footwear.
But that snap fashion judgment, and his firefighter’s build, led the London, Ont. man to chase down an alleged mugger and retrieve an elderly woman’s purse while on vacation in Chicago this week.
Chicago police say the woman was getting off an elevator after a doctor’s appointment around noon Tuesday when a man snatched her bag.
Martin was trying on a Cubs hat at a Michigan Avenue boutique when he heard a woman scream, “My purse! My purse!”
“I thought maybe he shouldn’t be carrying a floral purse,” Martin said from his Windy City hotel room. “It didn’t match his shoes.”
The firefighter took off running.
“He was close enough that I could catch him,” Martin said. “I just wanted the woman to get her purse back, that’s all.”
When Martin caught up to the man, he tackled him to the ground. He didn’t resist. “Once he was pinned down, he didn’t have any fight.”
Then Martin and another man dragged the assailant back to the lobby. The woman was there, purseless and hopping mad.
“She was screaming at him as we dragged him…‘Why did you do that? What were you thinking?’” Martin recalled.
The woman, who Martin guessed is in her 70s or 80s, thanked him but left quickly. “She was pretty shaken up.”
Police have charged Gregory Froggs, 49, with felony robbery. His bail was set at $250,000, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Apart from dabbling in heroism, Martin and his girlfriend have been doing all the usual Chicago activities.
“It’s been awesome,” he said. “We went to a Cubs game, a couple museums, a couple tours. We did the whole tourist thing.”
In fact, he dreads returning home Friday, and not just because London’s urban diversions don’t quite measure up to Chitown’s.
“I can hardly wait,” he said sarcastically.
His firefighter buddies have already started giving him grief since his picture appeared in the Tribune.
“I’m gonna take a beating for this,” he said. “When you pose for a picture… I didn’t think this was coming back to Canada.”
“O yeah, real hero,” one texted him. Other messages, he said, were too profane to share.
via Toronto Star.
