Kids Watch As Mom Foils Diaper Bag Bandit

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A mother in Murfreesboro said she was beaten when she tried to apprehend a diaper bag thief.

Video: Mom Chases Thief, Retrieves Stolen Diaper Bag

For many mothers, a child's diaper bag becomes more like a purse or a Carry-All Bag. And Crystal Green said a purse snatcher stole hers and assaulted her in front of her young children.

Green said as she was putting her children in the car and watching her daughter at the bus stop, a man walked by.

"I said good morning to the gentleman that robbed me," she said.

She said all of a sudden, the man ran at full speed toward her car where her two daughters were sitting in car seats, grabbed the diaper bag and ran. She said that's when instinct took over.

"'That's mine, that's not yours.' And you don't really think, you know, you go after them not knowing if they have weapons. It may have not been the smartest thing," she said.

Green said she chased him across a street and through a neighbor’s back yard screaming for him to stop. As he tried to scale a fence, he got stuck.

"His shorts were ripping on the fence and that's when he got down and punched me, and I didn't even see it coming. And that's when I fell down and it was like, 'Wow, he knocked the wind out of me,'" she said.

During the chase, other people had heard Green's cries for help.

"So that's when he turned it over, and he dumped everything out," Green said.

She said the man dropped the bag and ran away. She said she had her debit card and a set of car keys in the bag.

"That was my goal that he would get nothing, and he got nothing, not even a diaper," she said.

But Green said she got a blow to the stomach and to her peace of mind. Her children witnessed the entire thing and are even practicing karate in case the attempted diaper bag snatcher ever shows up again.

"He saw my children in there, and what kind of person can get in a car with children and just take something that's not theirs? It's a person who doesn't care," Green said.

Green also said the incident was the last straw for her and her family and that they plan to move in the next couple of weeks.