Repentant purse snatcher sentenced to time served

EASTON, Pa. – A down-and-out Pennsylvania purse snatcher told a judge he changed his mind halfway through the crime, and was sentenced to the time he has served in jail since the aborted January robbery.

Sixty-year-old Steven Dowling told a Northampton County judge on Tuesday that the woman fell because she pulled on her purse and he let her keep it, saying, “I kind of hit me right then: ‘I’m not doing this.’”

The Upper Black Eddy man says he was too broke to pay his bills and too proud to ask his family for money before he tried to steal the purse, telling the judge, “It was something stupid to do from being cold and hungry.”

The (Easton) Times-Express (http://bit.ly/2p5bkPQ ) says Dowling plans to move to New Hampshire and live with his brother.