5 Vehicles Damaged In Chase After Theft

A purse-snatching in Prince George's County touched off a car chase yesterday in which five vehicles were smashed up and three people were taken to a hospital, police and witnesses said.

Robbery took no holiday for the Labor Day weekend yesterday, with police also reporting a holdup at a check-cashing store in Montgomery County.

The purse-snatching occurred about 1:12 p.m. as a woman was pumping gasoline at a service station in Largo, according to Prince George's police.

A Toyota Camry carrying three men came into the station near Central Avenue and Campus Way South, said Officer Henry Tippett, a police spokesman. One of them "jumps out of the car, goes into her car and steals her purse," he said. The three men then left in the Camry.

The woman called police, and officers quickly spotted the car on Central Avenue, Tippett said.

A pursuit began. The car headed into the District, then back out and entered Prince George's County.

At 1:23 p.m., Tippett said, a county police cruiser involved in the pursuit crashed into a vehicle carrying two occupants near Gunther Street and Balboa Avenue in Capitol Heights.

"It was a bad accident," a neighborhood resident said. She said the police car apparently "T-boned" the other vehicle, damaging it severely.

One man said his car, which was parked on Balboa, was hit by the vehicle struck by the police car. Two cars parked across the street from his vehicle also showed

damage, although he said he was not certain how it occurred.

In all, said one resident of Gunther Street, "there were five cars out there torn up."

She said car chases are not rare on the street. In her dozen years there, "I've seen my share of them," she said.

The police officer and the two people in the other vehicle were taken to the hospital for "a routine checkup," Tippett said. He said none was seriously injured.

He said the suspects apparently left their car on nearby Clovis Avenue and fled. It was not clear whether the purse was recovered.

In the Montgomery incident, two men, at least one with a gun, held up the Services Unlimited check-cashing store at Lakeforest Mall in Gaithersburg about 12:45 p.m., police said.

They ran off with an undisclosed amount.