Quick wits helped a local woman get away when a man with a gun forced her outside into the parking lot. She hit him over the head with her purse and took off down a nearby path, running next door for help.
It happened a little before noon on Wolf Road in Colonie. Police say 45-year-old George Robinson of Latham walked into a local insurance agency with a gun and demanded a woman working there get in her car with him. Tonight he faces numerous charges including kidnapping, robbery and possession of a weapon.
"She started to get in the car then took her purse, hit him with her purse and he took her purse and took off toward Wolf Road," said Janice Hofaker Tighe, owner of A-L Hofaker Insurance Agency, who works with the victim.
As Robinson ran one way, the victim ran the other way toward a nearby coffee shop.
"{She} came running over in high heels, flustered and crying and screaming 'call 911, get inside, lock the doors he has a gun,'" said Elise Newkirk, an employee at Professor Java's Coffee Shop, who was working next door.
Almost as remarkable as the victim's quick- thinking was the quick work of police.
"As I was on the phone with 911 they told me they had caught someone," said Newkirk.
"An officer was on Wolf Road and observed the suspect running across Wolf Road, and he was taken into custody in the parking lot of the Best Western, said Lt. Robert Winn, with the Colonie Police Department.
An officer on the scene tells us that six other cruisers just happened to be within a quarter mile at the time. When he was taken into custody, Robinson allegedly had the victim's purse and a BB gun.
"It was pretty amazing that they were right on top of things and it was pretty amazing that she controlled herself so well under the circumstances," said Hofaker Tighe.
A lesson in bravery, Hofaker Tighe and co-worker Brenda Barkman say only their friend could teach as well.
"I don't know I would have done the same things. She thought of a way out, took the opportunity and ran with it," said Barkman.
Hofaker Tighe and Barkman tell us the victim knew what to do from watching Oprah. She did a segment warning women who find themselves in this situation to never get in the car.
