Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 17, 1993                   TAG: 9307170098
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

HE GAVE IT A REST UNTIL HIS ARREST

When a Roanoke man realized he could not rob Roxie Barbour at her Northwest Roanoke home, he sat down on her porch and waited for police.

Barbour, 81, said she was writing a note at 6:30 Friday morning when a man barged through her front door on Dunbar Street. Police said the man asked Barbour where her husband was. She told him that her husband was deceased.

"He reached to grab my pocketbook, but I snatched it back," Barbour said.

Police said Barbour screamed and her nephew, Warren Leftwich, came out of his room.

Leftwich struggled with the would-be robber - who at 5 feet 11 inches tall and 250 lbs. was described by Barbour as "much taller and larger."

The two grappled, breaking a dining room chair and knocking over another one. That's when Barbour threatened to call the police.

"He said, `Call the police then.' He then went out on the porch and sat down," Barbour said.

She called the police, but when the man asked for some water, she let her nephew bring him some.

"He said he was thirsty," Barbour said.

The responding officers said the suspect was "sweating profusely" and that he said he needed money to support a crack habit.

Timothy Wayne Dowe, 25, was charged with burglary to commit robbery.