A stranger in a van offered two students from St. James School candy while they were exercising with their schoolmates at Oz Park on Sept. 8.

According to the principal at the school, two female students, both 10 years old, were jogging in the park as part of a physical education class when they noticed a black van parked on the 600 block of W. Dickens Avenue.

As the students ran past the vehicle, a man rolled down the window halfway and said, “I have some candy.”

The students then sprinted toward their teacher and no words were exchanged with the man. The students described the suspect as a white male, possibly in his early thirties, who had a “chubby” face and was wearing a black t-shirt. One of the girls said she noticed that the van had a Mercedes Benz license plate frame.

A New York woman was the victim of a crafty purse theft at a Cheesecake Factory on the evening of Sept. 10.

The victim told police that she stopped at the restaurant, on the 800 block of N. Michigan Avenue, after a day of shopping. While at the bar, the woman recalled that she had put her purse underneath her chair. She also remembered that a man wearing a dark Kangol hat and a tan blazer stood next to her for about a minute before leaving the premise.

Afterwards, the victim found that her purse was missing, and upon talking to the manager of the restaurant it was revealed through security camera footage that the man had kicked the purse out from under the victim’s chair and taken it before leaving. The contents of the purse included $200 in cash, a cell phone, a pager and several credit and ID cards.

Police arrested Andre Pughsley, of the 1400 block of N. Washtenaw Avenue, for involvement in an armed robbery that occurred on Sept. 5.

According to the victim, Pughsley, 17, and four other offenders approached her at a property on the 200 block of W. Goethe Street at around 8 p.m. Pughsley reportedly put a gun to the woman’s head and stole her belongings.

The following evening, patrolling officers observed a man matching Pughsley’s description in a parking lot of an apartment complex on the 400 block of N. Evergreen Terrace. Officers positively identified and arrested Pughsley, who they later learned did not live at the building and was not there to visit anyone.

Darrius A. Davis, a 20-year-old man from Detroit, allegedly failed to ditch a bag of weed fast enough to avoid arrest on the evening of Sept. 10.

Responding to complaints of a large group of men harassing pedestrians on the 700 block of N. Michigan Avenue, police arrived at the scene to interview the rabble-rousers when one officer saw Davis drop a small plastic bag containing a green substance.

Officers immediately recovered the baggie, which they found to contain cannabis, and placed Davis under arrest. He was charged with possession of 30 grams or less of cannabis.

Police arrested a 14-year-old boy for snatching a purse at a CTA bus stop on the 1100 block of N. Clark Street the afternoon of Sept. 10. According to the victim, a 68-year-old woman, the boy offered her his seat on a bench.

When she sat, the offender grabbed her purse, which contained $30 in cash, and fled northbound on Clark.

Several witnesses observed the crime and chased him, while others contacted police. Officers located the suspect on Schiller Street. He was detained and brought back to the scene, where witnesses identified him. A witness retrieved the woman’s purse and officers found the cash in the suspect’s pockets.

A 22-year-old woman told police she was walking on the 1300 block of N. Cleveland Avenue at 8:30 p.m. on Sept. 8 when two offenders wearing black hooded sweatshirts and brandishing handguns approached her and began yelling profanities and commanding her to get on the ground. The woman opened her umbrella and yelled at the offenders, at which point they chose to flee.