West Columbia Police Search for Purse-Snatcher

(West Columbia) – The West Columbia Police Department needs your help finding information regarding a series of purse snatching incidents that have occurred in the K-Mart parking lot located at 1500 Charleston Highway in West Columbia. Chief Dennis Tyndall said the first incident occurred on September 9th at approximately 7:40 p.m. when a subject robbed a female victim and attempted to steal her purse as she entered her vehicle that was parked in the shopping center parking lot. Police say two similar incidents occurred this past weekend. At about 5:45 p.m. Friday night, police say as a female customer got into her vehicle, she was approached from behind by a suspect. Investigators say the suspect reached across the victim and grabbed her purse from the passenger seat.

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Why Purses?

It has become clear that women do not particularly like to be told what we do or do not admire in their physical aspect. We have always understood this, and it is for this reason that we do not give instruction or even advice in this domain. We merely give personal opinion. Or rather, something even less rational than personal opinion: personal response, something emotional and sexual. Call it bodily opinion. Call it the fluctuations of desire. And desire is notoriously resistant to political will. We cannot give ourselves more "progressive" desires for all the reading and prayer and fasting in the world. In other words, these reflections are not to serve as exhortations, but merely for your curiosity. We know that you do not dress for men anyway. So it is with pleasure that we can inform you that there are several areas of feminine sartorial custom that men, on the whole, do not look at.

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Shop offers designer-like handbags without the prices

La-La Handbags, nestled in among the shops along Douglas Avenue east of 70th Street in Urbandale, is a treasure trove of purses and a few seasonal accessories. La "Cathi" Fakih opened La-La Handbags - the name was derived from her first name - three years ago. In September, she moved it to 6804 Douglas Ave. in Urbandale from its former location at 3208 Douglas Avenue in Des Moines. Fakih said she did everything with the help of boyfriend Shawn Llewellyn, who contributed money to start the business and physical labor to decorate the shop. Fakih stocks a variety of handbags and a limited selection of wallets, coin purses and cell phone holders, beach bags and sandals. Most of the purses are similar to designer bags. Fakih, 41, is Laotian. In 1975, she came with her family to Des Moines by way of a refugee camp in Thailand, where they spent four years.

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Gallery walk event showcases custom purses

Christina Roselle has known what she wants to do with her life since she was a teenager, when she made a purse by sewing rabbit fur and attaching a strap. After getting so many compliments from her peers about the purse, Roselle made 75 more and sold them for $15 apiece. Years later, the Monroeville resident is making about a dozen handbags a month. Her creations go on sale today at WAX Jewelry Design Studio in Shadyside, which will host an opening reception for her tonight. Roselle, a single mother who works in the food industry, says she spends a lot of her free time crafting and perfecting her handbags, which she makes mostly out of carpet and animal fur, such as mink. She searches for used, worn carpets -- some as old as the 19th-century era -- that are thin enough to be sewn together.

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