Man hits woman, steals purse at UCI

Police are warning the public to look out for man who snatched a woman’s purse Thursday morning at UC Irvine.

A university employee was sitting in the lobby of the Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering about 10:30 a.m. when a man came up to grab her purse, campus authorities said.

When she resisted, the man hit her in the face and ran out of the building, according to a university police news release.

The robber was described as a 300-pound black man in his 40s, wearing a black suit, white shirt, pink tie and glasses.

He was followed out of the building by witnesses who saw him head north on Academy Way in a silver Chrysler 300 with a partial license-plate number of 5UT 139.

If you have information related to this incident, call Irvine police at (949) 724-7200 or UCI police at (949) 824-5223.

— Joseph Serna