It was a happy ending to a temporary crisis for Edgewood resident Christine Hakanson. Her purse was stolen by two suspects as she exited the Rite-Aid store at the corner of South 320th Street and Pacific Highway in Federal Way.

Tim Martin was driving through the parking lot near Rite Aid when he saw the two suspects running in front of him. When he heard Hakanson yelling about her stolen purse, Martin followed the suspects in his car.

The suspects threw the purse over a fence in a nearby alley before they had a chance to go through it. After a police officer hopped the fence and retrieved the purse, Hakanson said “the important things” were still in her purse.

“I just did what I hoped anybody would do in that situation,” said Martin, adding that another witness got the suspects’ license plate number. The suspects were arrested by Federal Way police just a few blocks away.

“If you have an opportunity to control the situation, you control it,” said Martin, an agent with Futurity First in Federal Way. “You just do what you’ve got to do.”