State senator helps to chase a robber in downtown Boston

By Sarah N. Mattero, Globe Correspondent

A state senator came to the aid of a woman who was chasing a robber who had stolen her phone while she was still talking on it.

Kathleen Joyce, director of government relations for the Boston Bar Association, had left her office and was walking down Beacon Street around 5:30 p.m. Wednesday when someone came up and snatched her iPhone from her hands.

“Someone just grabbed my phone and took off with it,” Joyce said. “So I turned around and started chasing him.”

Joyce ran down Beacon towards Tremont Street, yelling for help as she ran, and followed the man as he took a turn into what turned out to be a dead end street near the Granary Burying Ground.

“By the time I caught up, a white truck had already cornered him at the end,” she said. But the thief escaped, jumping over a fence at the end of the street.

Two men were standing by. She looked and saw that one of them was Senator Michael Rush, a West Roxbury Democrat.

“I don’t know how they saw me,” Joyce said. “But I was happy someone actually took the time and helped.”

Moments later, the three looked down and saw Joyce’s phone on the ground — without a scratch on it.

Joyce said Senator Rush told her to “take it easy” and said he was sorry for not catching the man for her.

As for talking on the phone while walking down the street, Joyce said, she’ll keep her phone safe in her bag from now on.

“I’m going to be very aware from now on,” she said.