Police search for knife-wielding suspect in abduction and robbery

PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - Police say they are searching for a woman who has been trying to rob and abduct people in the city's Crescentville neighborhood.

Addie Simmons stopped by the Walmart on the Boulevard Tuesday evening on her way home from work--concerned about news of a knife-wielding woman abducting a female customer right in the parking lot.

"It goes to show you can't trust people nowadays. Anybody around you. You have to be careful of everybody around," she said.

Police say a woman approached a 22-year-old shopper as she headed to her car last Thursday just before 8 p.m. and quickly demanded money.

"This offender produces a knife and orders her into her car a 2017 Honda," Philadelphia Police Captain Sekou Kinebrew said.

The suspect forced the woman to drive to a nearby ATM on Rising Sun Avenue and withdraw $500, according to police. She was later seen in a Mercury Grand Marquis at a nearby Wawa. Now, police say the same female suspect struck two nights later in a parking lot a few blocks away.

"Grabs the complainant by the arm, demands money, says don't make a scene Thankfully, she was able to shake loose and free herself of the suspect," Captain Kinebrew said.

The 16-year-old victim managed to fight the suspect off and escape unharmed. Police worry the suspect might strike again so they want shoppers to be on guard.

"Keep alert, don't wear anything that would distract your senses, don't wear headphones or sunglasses that would stop you from seeing or hearing what's going on around you," Captain Kinebrew said.