Well, a purse with a ton of coins in it might work just fine.

A friend of mine was walking down the street one afternoon early in the month, and about a quarter of a block ahead of him was an elderly lady. She was carrying her purse by the strap. My friend spotted a kid who was walking toward her very briskly and immediately knew he was going to try to snatch the woman's purse. So he put on a burst of speed, hoping to get to the woman in time to stop the kid.

He didn't make it. But as the kid made a dive to grab her purse, she spun on her heel, swinging the purse by the strap, and clopped the kid upside the head with it. The kid did about three somersaults and wound up with his face in the gutter and his butt pointed at the sky.

By then, my friend had caught up to her.

"Nicely done!" he said. "I was going to try to stop him, but it looks like you didn't need any help."

She said that she had just come from the bank from cashing her Social Security check, and that a couple of times around the first part of the month when the S. S. checks come in, she'd had her purse snatched. So she decided to carry a brick in her purse and use it as a weapon if necessary.

My friend walked her to the door of her apartment building and bid her good day, then went back to where the kid had been laying. He was gone, so either he had staggered off with his head tucked underneath his arm, or the city sanitation department had shoveled him out of the gutter.

Don Firth