Woman caught on video punching man accused of taking purse in Wynwood: "It was either me or him"

MIAMI - A woman whose purse was stolen talks about how she confronted the accused thief while crashing her car in the process, and how she fought him to get it back in Wynwood.

All of it was caught on video, which has since gone viral.

The video shows a woman crashing into a car, then it shows her chasing down a man she says stole her purse.

The victim said she repeatedly punched the suspect to get her belongings back.

Miurell Vargas says it happened while she was working back on March 29. She says she came into her store to tell her that her car had just broken into and that somebody had taken her bag.

Vargas says she jumped right into her car and started looking for the suspect and while she was driving around looking for him, she got into a car crash.

The video shows the crash as Vargas sprints out of her car and confronts the suspect and she even gets physical with him.

"I tried to force and grab my wallet and he didn't want to let go of it. So, he did like this movement. He put his hand behind and I thought he was gonna pull out a gun or a knife. So, that's when I started punching him because it was either me or him."

Vargas and the woman in the other car were both OK, but both of those cars were totaled.

Vargas did get a ticket, as for the suspect, police identified him as 41-year-old Luis Enrique Machado.

He was arrested and charged with burglary, criminal mischief and petty theft.

We asked Vargas why it was so important to get her belongings back, and she told us that she had a picture of her mom, who passed away a couple of years ago in her bag and she wanted to make sure that she got that picture back.