San Diego

A 74-year-old North Park woman was injured Saturday when she was dragged 25 feet by thieves in a passing car who grabbed her purse as she was putting her purchases into a car outside a drug store, authorities said.

Esther Darneal suffered several head injuries, according to her daughter, Rebecca Mueller, who was at the scene. Darneal was treated at Kaiser Hospital and released.

“They grabbed her purse and drove off,” Mueller said of the thieves. “My mother wasn’t being stubborn. She just couldn’t free her arm from the purse. She was stuck. She just gave a scream and off she went.”

Mueller said she, her daughter and her mother were loading their car in a parking lot at 32nd Street and University Avenue about 7 p.m. when a red sports car pulled up alongside them. One of the three men inside grabbed Darneal’s purse, spraying items she had bought across the lot.

Authorities later arrested three men they said were driving a stolen red sports car along Interstate 805. The purse was recovered.

The men were identified as George Hunter, 29; Gerome Smith, 38, and Jackie Moragne, 38, all of San Diego. They were being held at County Jail on suspicion of robbery.