SNAP, the lady's got PLUCK

Nancy Kelly was meeting a friend at a Panera in Oak Lawn for a quick bite. What she didn't anticipate was having her wallet stolen. And what the thieves didn't anticipate was stealing the wallet of a Cook County Sheriff's sergeant.

Kelly, had claimed a table at the restaurant by putting down her purse with her coat on top of it, according to the Chicago Sun-Times. She was at the fountain getting her drink and waiting for her sandwich when she noticed a woman in the booth where she had left her coat. Kelly quickly checked her purse, saw that her wallet was gone and immediately flew into action chasing the woman through the restaurant and out the door. She confronted the woman who gave back the wallet but a quick check of the contents revealed several credit cards were missing along with about $100 in cash. So Kelly decided to fight fire with fire and she grabbed the thief's purse. A tug-of-war ensued and Kelly was aided by some passersby which is a good thing because a 17-year-old girl and a 41-year-old man came to the aid of the thief. Kelly refused to let go, even after she heard someone yell 'she's gonna bite you' - she yanked the woman up by the hair and punched her in the face.

Oak Lawn police arrived at the scene a few minutes later after Kelly directed her friend Carolyn Nissen to call 911 and get her own purse from the restaurant. At this point the two female suspects fled the scene with a third female but Nissen and a passerby jotted down the license plate number of the vehicle and Oak Lawn police were able to apprehend the women several minutes later. The thieves had been busy that day: police nabbed all four suspects and discovered credit cards belonging to several other people in the haul.

Did I mention that Nancy Kelly is 61-years-old? Yes, she is.

Naperville City Desk is not recommending everyone risk life and limb on a confrontation like this but has to give Nancy Kelly props. She did so many things right (except for the glaring mistake of not keeping her purse on her at the drink fountain):
- she was aware of her surroundings
- observant of the woman at her booth
- nervy enough to chase her down and confront her
- smart enough to have her friend call the police
- strong enough to detain the suspect in the purse tug-of-war
- had a quick-thinking friend with her who thought to write down the license plate of the getaway car and give it to police for fast action
- raised a verbal ruckus calling out to passersby who came to her assistance

So Naperville City Desk is happy to present Nancy Kelly with it's first-ever 'Plucky Chick of the Week Award.' Nice going, Nancy!