A woman told police she was talking on the phone to friends outside a Boylston Ave apartment Monday night when a man came up behind her, grabbed her pursed and ran to a waiting car before speeding away.

According to the SPD report on the incident, the woman was on the phone as she approached an apartment building in the 500 block of Boylston Ave East. As she got to the door she sensed somebody coming up behind her and stepped aside to let them by. The woman said the man grabbed her purse and ran to a Volvo station wagon that sped away after he jumped into the passenger seat.

The woman described the robber as a black male in his late 30s. He was wearing a yellowish knit ski cap and a plaid jacket at the time of the purse snatch. A search of the area for the suspect was not successful.

Earlier this week we reported on the release of 2010 crime statistics for the city of Seattle. We’ve included a graph of trends from those statistics, below. You’ll note that SPD’s data indicates the number of robberies dipped in 2010 after a rise in 2009. We’ll have more on the East Precinct and Capitol Hill crime totals soon.