SEPTA Driver Deemed Hero For Saving Woman From Thief
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Officials are recognizing a SEPTA Bus driver for his quick actions after interrupting a purse snatching.
Watch quickly, or you just might miss it.
The video shows a veteran SEPTA bus driver, flying from his seat to go after a purse snatcher. "Just wanted to help out," Charles Arterbury explained. "If my wife was in that predicament I would hope somebody would try to help her."
The thief struck as the victim was about to board the bus at about 4:40 a.m. at 29th and Girard Avenue. Arterbury said that he didn't give it much thought and fortunately didn't have to run far down Girard where he pinned down the suspect long enough for police to take him in.
"A big risk. Definitely courageous. Mr. Arterbury exhibited the very definition of going above and beyond the call of duty," said Captain Chuck Lawson of the SEPTA Transit Police.
Arterbury says that his fellow passengers stepped up too. Surveillance shows that some of them ran out behind him to help pin the suspect down. "I remember them asking me did I catch him," Arterbury said of the passengers when he returned to his bus. "In between breaths, I said yeah."
A well deserved round of applause followed with a thank you from the victim, first in the moment, and then later again.
"Ironically, on the way home, I think it was my last trip, I see her again so the first thing that went through my mind is if I didn't do nothing and she got back on my bus I wouldn't be able to look at her in her face. I just wouldn't be able to do it, so I was happy the fact that I was able to face her and ask if she was alright," Arterbury explained.
