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Police foil 88-year-old purse snatcher

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Published: July 15, 2009 at 5:56 PM

PESARO, Italy, July 15 (UPI) -- Italian police said an 88-year-old woman with a history of petty theft was caught attempting to steal a woman's purse at a weekly market in Pesaro.

Authorities said a recent increase in reports of pickpocketing led to a heightened police presence at the market Tuesday, and one of the officers spotted the elderly woman, identified as Filomena Barbetta, lifting a purse out of a woman's bag, the ANSA news agency reported Wednesday.

Police said Barbetta has a string of petty theft convictions from incidents starting in the 1970s and stretching into the 1990s.

Barbetta was not arrested, but police served her an order requiring her to remain within her home region of Basilicata.

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