Man Uses Victim's Pepper Spray To Elude Capture, Police Say

Police spent about an hour looking for a man who who stole a woman's backpack and ran away early Monday. 

Officers said the victim and a friend chased the man but he used pepper spray and was swinging a sledge hammer as he fled. 

Tulsa Police got the call just before 1:15 a.m. in the 3400 block of South Winston just west of Yale and south of the Broken Arrow Expressway. 

The victim said she was carrying several items to her condo when a white male, wearing all black ran up to her and her friend, took the backpack and key chain which had a pepper spray dispenser attached and ran. 

They both took off after the man, but as they got close, they told police the man turned around, aimed the pepper spray and sprayed them both. 

Police said neither victim was injured and after looking for the man with the police helicopter and officers on the ground, the search was called off.