A woman opening her 19th Ave E store for the afternoon Thursday was robbed of her purse by a man who entered the shop but was disrupted before he could steal anything else while two other men attempted to distract the woman, according to a police radio report. The Seattle Police Department confirmed the crime this morning.

In an apparently coordinated effort to distract her, two men approached the woman as she set up a display outside her store in the 500 block of 19th Ave E around 1:45 PM on Thursday. As they attempted to engage the woman in conversation, she became suspicious when she noticed a third man walk into the store. When she entered the shop, the man quickly walked away from the store’s counter carrying her purse, according to the SPD. The man exited the shop and got into an SUV described as “purple bluish” in color and drove away leaving the other two men behind.

The woman said the purse grabber was a black male, about 5’9″, 220 lbs, bald, with a stocky build and likely in his 30s. According to the SPD, a search was performed around the store on 19th Ave and E. Mercer where the vehicle left the area but no suspects were found.