Jake Vereneault: Cape freshman takes down thief

Cape Henlopen High School freshman Jake Vereneault speaks softly and carries himself in an unassuming way.

Not unlike other 14-year-old boys.

But in early November a different side of him came out when he tackled a purse-snatcher.

Jake and his friends had been hanging out listening to music at his Sandy Brae home when they decided on a change of scenery.

It was 9 p.m. and they set out for a walk to MacDonald's on Route 1.

“We took the back way behind Walmart. I wasn't worried that it was dark,” he said.

Coming around the back of the Walmart through a dim alleyway, Jake said, they heard screams and commotion from the front of the store.

“We saw all these people looking at something,” he said. “This woman was standing there almost crying saying 'He took my purse.'”

Then Jake saw her husband. “He was out of breath and said, 'I can't run anymore, I have asthma. Can you stop that man. He just stole my wife's purse,'” Jake said.

The husband pointed to an adjacent field and Jake took off running. His friends were close behind. “They were worried that he might have a knife,” he said.

When Jake reached the edge of the field, he saw the culprit: a tall white man wearing glasses and dressed in black walking nonchalantly along the dark hedgerow.

Jake guessed the man was in his 30s and about 6-foot-2, but that didn't deter Jake, just shy of 6 feet himself and weighing about 165.

Jake put his experience as middle linebacker for Cape's freshmen football team to use and tackled the man before he could get away. They struggled. Jake said he put the man in a headlock at one point and kept him down with the help of his friends until some nearby adults arrived.

“I made sure he wasn't getting up,” Jake said.

The teens helped scour the field and found the purse, but its contents were scattered. The thief still had the woman's wallet, Jake said.

Master Cpl. Gary Fournier of the Delaware State Police said a couple was loading groceries into their car when Ryan Karkoska, 27, of Georgetown snatched the woman's purse out of a shopping cart.

“The 14-year-old caught him,” Fournier said.

Carl Kanefsky, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office, said Karkoska pleaded guilty to theft on Nov. 9 and received probation before judgement until June 1, allowing him, as a first offender, to avoid conviction. If an offender complies with the terms and conditions of his probation, no conviction is entered on the record, according to Delaware courts.

Jake said he gave a statement to police and stayed until the situation died down. The couple thanked him, but seemed flabbergasted, he said.

So, Jake and his friends continued on to McDonald's where his friend's mom picked them up.

“We told her that we just stopped a robbery,” he said. “But she didn't really believe us.”

A Cadet Command Commendation given to Jake March 10 by the Cape Henlopen School District now gives him proof. Jake is a member of Cape's Junior ROTC program and is an outstanding student, said Lt. Col. Ronald Erale, head of Cape's Junior ROTC program.

“Jake earned this for exceptional actions and duty,” said Erale. “He deserves recognition for what he did.”