Lemon Power

An attempted mugging at the bus stop near the Lemon Grove trolley station on Monday, November 2, was foiled when the perpetrator slipped on some lemons...near the city’s lemon statue.

Cristiana Flores was waiting at the bus stop when an unmasked African-American male in his 20s grabbed her purse and started to run away. Another waiting bus rider, Jeremy Foster, started running after the mugger. The thief didn’t get far before he slipped on a few lemons that had either been dropped by someone walking by or had come from the trees growing next to the bus stop. He fell down and dropped the purse.

As Foster closed in on the mugger, he decided to run away so he wouldn’t get caught. He left the purse and its contents scattered all over the ground. An accomplice waiting in a nearby black pickup truck aided in his escape before police were called.

Foster was modest about helping Flores, and both declined to have their picture taken. Foster helped pick up the scattered belongings of Flores before catching the next bus to Cuyamaca College.