Suspected Bloomfield Township Purse Snatchers Headed to Court

Two Waterford men are expected to face a judge in 48th District Court this week on charges stemming from an attack on an older woman in a Bloomfield Township parking lot last week. 

Tony Loftin, 29, and Nicholas Thomas, 33, are charged with counts of unarmed robbery for the May 29 mugging outside the Kroger on Telegraph Road, court records show. They each face up to 15 years in prison, if convicted, and have a preliminary hearing before a judge Thursday. They were arraigned and ordered to the Oakland County Jail on $250,000 bond at arraignment last week. 

Jail records show the men were still in custody over the weekend. 

Officers with the Bloomfield Township Police Department and the Bloomfield Hills Department of Public Safety arrested the pair shortly after a woman reported being pushed to the ground near her vehicle just before 11 p.m., police reports said. Officers responded to the scene and found the woman bleeding from her head and face from cuts suffered when she hit the ground. She was treated at the scene for minor injuries and refused transport to a local hospital.

The 63-year-old victim told police she was near her vehicle when one of the men pushed her and snatched her purse before funning eastbound on Long Lake Road. Not long after alerting other departments about the incident, officers with the Bloomfield Hills Department of Public Safety reported they stopped a car stopped for a traffic violation at the intersection of Long Lake and Woodward with men that could fit the perpetrator's description, reports said.

The officers questioned the men along the road and found the victim's drivers license inside the vehicle. Upon further questioning, both men confessed to the crime committed in Bloomfield Township as well as committing another purse snatching in Pontiac earlier in the evening, reports said.