Driver Robs Donation-Seeker After Offering Ride

Spokane County sheriff’s deputies are searching for a man who robbed a woman who was seeking donations of baby food along Francis in North Spokane on May 24.

The 42-year-old victim told deputies she was standing along East Francis about 5 p.m., holding a sign that read: “Will work for baby food.”

A man stopped and offered her a ride to a nearby store to purchase baby formula. The woman accepted, but the man instead drove behind Spokane County Fire Station No. 98 at 6606 N. Regal, said sheriff’s spokesman Dave Reagan.

Once there, the suspect ordered the woman out of the car, and demanded she leave behind her purse and the small amount of groceries she had collected, Reagan said. The woman said she lunged for her purse as she got out of the car, and was knocked to the ground by the passenger door as the suspect drove away, Reagan said.

The woman suffered a cut over her right eye, and scrapes and bruises. A passing motorist spotted the victim walking with blood on her face, and called the paramedics and the sheriff’s office.

The woman was taken to a local hospital where she was treated and released, Reagan said.

She told deputies her attacker was black, about 6 feet tall, with short black hair. He was wearing a light-colored shirt and blue jeans. She said his vehicle was an older tan four-door passenger car. The victim’s purse was discovered by a nearby resident. It had been discarded in the roadway at Francis and Lacey.

Anyone with information on the robbery is asked to call Crime Check at 456-2233.