'If you don't stop, I'm going to shoot you': Woman describes being robbed outside office in broad daylight

FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. -- "He finally got me on the ground and his hand on my chest and said, 'if you don't stop, I'm going to shoot you.'"

That's a harrowing account from a woman who says she was robbed in broad daylight just outside of her office in Fayetteville.

Police are now looking for a man captured in surveillance pictures.

It was a typical morning for Tara Scascher.

"I was driving to work on the phone with my best friend that I talk with every morning," she said.

Scascher, a loan officer for a small firm, was walking into work just off McPherson Church Road.

"Out of my peripheral, I see a man approaching me," she said.

Thinking he was a client looking for a mortgage, she asked him if there was anything she could help him with.

"He calmly looked at me and said I'm here to take your purse," she said.

But the daughter of a black belt and wife of a Fort Bragg paratrooper wasn't going to let that happen.

At least not without a fight.

"Then he said, 'if you don't stop, I'm going to shoot you.'"

But she didn't stop.

Eventually, the suspect was able to snatch her purse and everything inside, including her wallet, glasses and cell phone.

He was spotted on surveillance video just minutes later trying to use Tara's debit card at Walmart.

But there's one other thing he stole that Tara will never be able to replace.

"I have my fathers possessions," she said. "My father passed away in January so there are things I can't get back from that."

Equally valuable -- the suspect stole Tara's sense of security.

"I wasn't visually aware of everything in my surroundings because I felt comfortable where I was at," she said.

Anyone with any information regarding the robbery, or the identity of the suspect, is asked to contact the Fayetteville Police Department at (910) 391-0053 or Crimestoppers at (910) 483-TIPS (8477) and http://fay-nccrimestoppers.org .