MANCHESTER — Alone and walking to her car late at night, Ashley Stathopoulos was terrified when a man on a bicycle grabbed her purse and pedaled away.

She also was quite angry.

“I wasn't letting him get away. He only looked back at me once. I don't think he expected me to make such a scene,” said Stathopoulos, who chased the bicyclist for a couple of blocks down Elm Street while screaming for help around 1:45 a.m. Saturday. Stathopoulos made enough of a racket to get the attention of an officer on patrol, who pulled up in a police cruiser and listened as Stathopoulos explained what happened. The officer put out the call and police took over the chase from Stathopoulos, who said she chased the bicyclist for two blocks wearing sandals.

“I ran after him screaming. I made a big scene,” she said Monday. “I'm happy that I did. They heard me and came right to me and caught him. It was like within seconds.”

Stathopoulos, 25, has had a few days for her nerves to settle, but she said the whole thing still seems surreal. She and a group of friends had just left McGarvey's near the corner of Elm and Lowell streets when the man swooped in and grabbed her purse.

“I have taken a self-defense class, but this was different,” she said.

Stathopoulos said her instinct was to chase the man and draw as much attention to her situation as she could while running down Elm Street.

She got as far as J.W. Hill's, where the man on the bike rounded the corner and headed east on Merrimack Street — right toward Manchester Police headquarters. He made it a couple of blocks before Officer Tyler Shaw, who had just finished his shift, noticed a man on a bike riding through a parking lot with a purse. Shaw ran after the man, pulled him off the bike, and detained him.

“It was just luck that he was coming out of the station when he did. He was just in the right place,” Lt. Mike Hurley said. “He probably did what any other off-duty officer would have done.”

Police identified the man as Joseph Carroll, 31, of Manchester, and charged him with felony theft, based on two previous theft convictions. He also was being held on violation of bail conditions.

Hurley said police do not advise people to give chase the way Stathopoulos did, but said she did do the right thing by yelling and drawing attention to herself.

“You never know whether that person is going to be armed or what kind of action that person would take against you,” Hurley said.

Stathopoulos, who said she lost her voice from all the screaming she did, said she has written a thank-you letter to the officers involved.

“I can't thank them enough,” she said. “I never felt so helpless. It was so quick. It was crazy.”

dalden@unionleader.com