HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – The blood and bruises on Jackie Arnold are a chilling reminder of how far thieves are willing to go for cash.
"I didn't have time to put my hands out or anything and I just went down face first," said Arnold. Dramatic surveillance video shows her chasing a car after a pair of purse snatchers stole her belongings.
"When I realized they weren't stopping I just kind of half stepped to the side and the car side swiped me and put me into a spin," said Arnold.
She loses her balance and falls right into the concrete. Witnesses snapped these photos of her on the ground alongside Hollywood Boulevard, injured, and helpless, "I didn't lose consciousness but I was dazed."
Just a day later, Stephen Weber Jr., and Sr. stumbled upon an eerily similar scene at a retirement community in Margate. "You heard screaming?" asked Local 10's Sasha Andrade. "Screaming, loud screaming," Webber Sr. replied.
An 82 year old woman was on the ground, face down, and bleeding.
"I looked down her hand was covered in blood," said Webber Jr.
The Good Samaritans said they noticed two men near her, and one of them was running, "...coming across the street hiding something on his side and I noticed it was a purse and I yelled drop the purse! And then I started calling 911, and started chasing him."
The Webbers helped police nab two suspects in Margate.
However, the men involved in the Hollywood mugging got away.
Residents in both communities are understandably shaken. "People have been afraid. We're all aware that times have changed," said one woman who was walking her dog.
Meanwhile, Jackie Arnold feels lucky to be alive, "Who would think that in that time they could pull it off?"