Fairfax City Lt. Rory Castillo said otherwise. He said police offered to call Fairfax County for her, and she declined, saying, "No, don't bother, I'll take care of it myself," Castillo said.

Lamb said she was so desperate for her purse, she would have taken any help she could get.

"If they had offered that, don't you think I would have gone for it?" she asked.

APP THAT SOLVES CRIMES

The Internet is filled with stories about people and police who used the phone app to track down stolen goods. Officials located a stolen car in Australia, helped tourists in New Orleans get back their smartphone and solved a crime spree in Kensington, Md., where men who had stolen an iPhone were apprehended with several backpacks of stolen GPS units.

In Manchester, Tenn., an 8-year-old boy used the tracking device to find his stolen iPad. He told his parents the application showed his device at a nearby hotel, and his father called the police.

"From there, investigators just followed the bouncing--or, in this case, hovering--ball," the story read.

They recovered the boy's iPad, as well as about $350,000 in stolen goods from at least 100 incidents, stretching from Pennsylvania to Florida.

The story of the two middle-aged women who Lamb said "took on this guy because the cops wouldn't" might be added to the "Find My iPhone" successes.

"It doesn't matter how old you are," she said, "if you have the gumption."

Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
Email: cdyson@freelancestar.com