MADERA -  A Saturday afternoon trip to the grocery store turned out to be anything but fun for a Madera woman and her child. As the woman was checking out at the Grocery Outlet Bargain Market near the Madera Fairgrounds, a black male adult grabbed her purse, which include her wallet and cell phone, and ran out the door followed by two other individuals.

As the woman yelled to the band of criminals, "I only want my cell phone. You can have everything else", several customers started chasing down the crooks who ran to a waiting car in the Super 8 Motel parking lot. The three individuals jumped in a late 1990's beige or gold Nissan Pathfinder. According to the police the vehicle traveled west on Cleveland Avenue and turned north onto Schnoor Avenue.

The victim had an application on her phone which allowed her to track its whereabouts, but the suspects tossed the phone near the covered canal at Kennedy and Schnoor Avenue in front of the Holiday Inn Express.

The suspects are described as black male adults between the ages of 18-25. The individual who grabbed the purse wears his hair in dreadlocks and was wearing baggy blue jeans and a white tee shirt.

Detective Jason Gutknecht of the Madera Police Department said there was also an incident four days earlier at T-Mobile in the same shopping center where two black male adults entered the store and stole several display phones from walls. Detectives have not yet compared the videos from both incidents to know for sure if the two crimes are related.

Det. Gutknecht warns citizens to be aware of your surroundings and if there is a group of youth in your vicinity to be alert of their activities at all times.  If you have any information on these crimes or know the identities of these suspects please contact the Madera Police Department at (559) 675-4200.