Tulsa Woman's Quick Thinking Leads To Arrest Of Robbery Suspect

A lot of us wonder what we might do when facing a threatening situation. A Tulsa woman did everything right which saved her and led to an arrest.

It happened Thursday night when a man tried to yank a purse off a woman's shoulder in the Brookside area. The woman fought back and kicked suspect, and he took off.

The victim gave police a detailed description of the man, so when another woman was being followed just 30 minutes later by a man facing the same description, police knew it was the same guy.

Police officers arrested 17-year-old Adrian Avila, thanks to Keely who was a textbook example of what you should do to prevent a crime.

She got off work Thursday night, went home, opened the garage door and, as she does each night, took a moment to look around.

"When I turned around to check, I felt somebody was there. He looked me straight in the eye," Keely said.

Keely quickly realized she had been followed. She put the garage door back down and pulled out of her neighborhood, hoping maybe he was just lost, but he followed her.

The suspect followed her for miles south on Riverside Drive. She then called 911; even though she worried she was overreacting.

"I'm watching him and talking to her and he's still behind me," Keely said. "[The 911 operator] said, ‘pull into the Kohl's parking lot.' I did, but Kohl's was closed and he's still behind me," she said.

The dispatcher had her pull into Quik Trip where an officer happened to be. The man pulls in after her, and then sees police and leaves. Police followed him and arrest the 6'3", 220 pound Avila, not far away.

Officers tell Keely he had tried to rob two women in Brookside a little earlier.

"Then it all registered, wow this was really dangerous," she said.

She says it took a long time to go to sleep, wondering where he began following her and if his intentions were robbery or something worse.

Keely says this whole situation has made her realize, these things really do happen to everyday people. She's glad to know that when faced with danger, she kept her cool and followed her gut.

Avila was booked into jail for attempted robbery.