Woman locks purse-snatching suspect in car until police arrive

A Hagerstown woman charged last week in a purse snatching was nabbed when another woman told her to get in her vehicle and then locked her inside.

Teresa Lynn Conway, 42, of 127A Buena Vista Ave., was charged by Hagerstown police with robbery, second-degree assault, attempted theft and disorderly conduct in the incident, which occurred in Ayers Alley near the Washington County District Court Building, according to the statement of probable cause.

When officers responded to the scene, Conway was in the back seat of a vehicle of another woman, the charging document said.

The driver of the vehicle told the officer she was leaving district court with a cousin when she heard someone yelling for help in Ayers Alley, the charging document said. The woman drove around to the alley and saw Conway walking toward her vehicle, the document said.

"Realizing that Conway was a possible suspect in some type of crime or a victim," the woman rolled down her window and told her to get in because the police were coming, the charging document said.

"At first Conway did not want to get in, however, she did," the charging document said.

The driver had Conway get in the back seat and engaged the child safety locks so she could not get out, the document said.

The incident began shortly after 11:30 a.m. Friday when police were called about a robbery in progress, the charging document said. The victim, Carolyn Watkins, told police she was walking in the alley when a woman in a green hooded sweat shirt and pink pajama pants pointed something into Watkins' back, told her she had a gun and demanded her purse, the document said.

Watkins turned around and saw that the woman "only had her finger pointed in her back," the charging document said. The woman then tried unsuccessfully to grab the purse from Watkins.

As the incident was happening, Watkins' yells for help led to a number of people coming to her aid.

Conway was originally jailed on $25,000 bond, which was reduced to $7,000 at a Monday bond review before District Judge Mark D. Thomas. She later posted bond, a detention center official said.