ALTAMONTE SPRINGS, Fla. -- A 64-year-old former Marine whose purse was snatched and stolen inside a gated Altamonte Springs condo complex said she if she would have caught the robber she would have "beat him to death."

Ruby Homayssi said she was robbed Sunday night at the Bona Vista condominiums off West Town Parkway and state Road 434 in Altamonte Springs.

"All of a sudden, I felt something jerk, and I was thinking, 'I'm not that close to the bushes.' It jerked again, and I turned around and there was this man behind me," Homayssi said.

The man grabbed her purse and fled on foot, she said.

"I'm angry. If I had gotten my hands on that young man, I don't know what I would have done. If I had had this stick, I had gotten him, I'd have beat him to death. I would have been so angry, I wouldn't have stopped," Homayssi said.

The thief dropped the purse but stole her checkbook.

Homayssi said she blames herself for the attack.

"It never dawned on me to think about being careful to look around that someone was going to accost me in a gated community," said Homayssi, who added that she hopes other people learn from her mistake.

A K-9 tracked a scent to a nearby furniture store.

Homayssi could not provide a detailed description of the man because she did not see his face and it was dark outside.