ROCKLAND — Police have arrested a Massachusetts man who is accused Wednesday of stealing a woman's purse while she was shopping in the Rockland Walmart store on Camden Road (Route 1).

Stephan T. Norton, 31, of Shrewsbury, Mass., was arraigned in Rockland Superior Court Friday morning on one count of class A robbery and one count of class C theft by unauthorized taking. The robbery charge was elevated to a class A felony because Norton allegedly used physical force against the victim when she tried to stop him from fleeing the scene.

According to the affidavit filed at the Knox County Courthouse by Rockland Police Detective Russell Thompson, police were called to the Walmart store Sept. 26 for a man who was hiding in the men's room with what witnesses said looked to be a woman's purse under his sweatshirt.

According to the affidavit, the man was reported to have just stolen a woman's purse from a shopping cart, and moments later, a Knox County Regional Communications dispatcher was told he had fled from the store.

The victim told police she was in the store with her boyfriend looking at phone and phone cards and that her purse was in a shopping cart at the head of the aisle. She said when she turned around to put something in the cart she noticed her purse was missing.

She told police she approached store employees at the service desk and described her purse, and was told that a man had gone into the bathroom with a purse that matched the description of hers. The victim said she waited outside the bathroom for the man to exit and when he came out, she confronted him.

She asked him to return the money and her prescription drugs, according to the court document, and the man allegedly responded, "Why would I take your purse?" She then told the man police were on their way to the store and the man left.

"[The victim] said she followed him outside and he was just walking but when he got to the grass on the north side of the building he began to run," said Thompson in the affidavit. The victim then said she chased the man into the bushes next to the store and was able to grab his sweatshirt but he "pushed her and he was able to get away."

She told police she was not injured when he pushed her, and said that in addition to the prescription medication, the purse contained cell phones and $2,850 cash.

"[The victim] said they had just cashed a check at the bank in the amount of $3,000... and her boyfriend took $150 of that and the rest was in an envelope in her pocketbook," said Thompson in the affidavit.

According to the affidavit, two store employees confirmed seeing the man with something rolled up in his gray sweatshirt or under his arm.

Surveillance videotape from Walmart purportedly shows the man talking to an employee, then walking down an aisle and as he does, he grabbed a shopping cart that was left by victim with her purse in it. He is then allegedly seen taking the purse from the cart, putting it under his sweatshirt and walking away.

While talking to the store manager and reviewing the video, Detective Russ Thompson, of Rockland Police, was approached by Knox County Detective Donald Murray, who said he was dealing with a man that fit the description of the suspect from earlier in the morning. Murray said the man's name was Stephen Norton.

At the same time, another employee came to the office and said the man was her nephew, and confirmed his name was Norton. That employee said that sometime between 9:30 and 10 a.m. they received a call from another store employee that they had a visitor. The visitor turned out to be the nephew, Norton, who they had not seen in a number of years.

The employee said that Norton said he was "on the run" because "his brother tried to put him in rehab that morning due to his heroin addiction." After talking to Norton for a few minutes, the employee went back inside to work and then heard on the store's radio that a purse had been stolen and the suspect was on the run.

Rockland officer Lloyd Daniels and Detective Thompson tried to find the suspect's path in the woods, but it was noted in the affidavit the ground was swampy and thick with thorn bushes. Thompson said he then received word that Camden Police officer Brook Hartshorn was speaking with Norton's wife and his cousin, and the officers went to their location. A few moments later, while the officers were with them, the cousin received a call from Norton who said he was at a nearby motel in Rockport.

Officers proceeded to the motel, where they said they found the man they saw on the store surveillance videotape and who confirmed to them he was Stephen Norton. He was described in the report as being "covered in vegetation" with wet and muddy sneakers and "his pants were wet up to his shins."

When questioned by police, Norton allegedly said he dumped the prescription drugs into one bottle, but then "lost the bottle running from the store."

Norton also allegedly admitted to taking the purse from the shopping cart and that he went to the bathroom and flushed most of the unusable things down the toilet. He also allegedly told police he remembered someone grabbing him when he was running away, but that he didn't remember how it was he "got them to let go of him."

The man also allegedly said he put the money in his wallet in a side compartment separate from his money.

When asked how much money of his own he had, Norton said he "had a few hundred dollars in denominations of fifty and one hundred dollar bills," according to the court document. When asked how much money he got from the purse, Norton said he believed it was also a few hundred dollars in the same denominations.

"I then checked the money in Mr. Norton's wallet... Mr. Norton had a total of $2,850 in his wallet. The same amount reported stolen by [the victim]," said the detective in the affidavit. "I also noted there were hundred dollar bills from one sequential order in both rolls of money indicating he had divided the money he had taken into two separate rolls."

Norton's bail was set at $10,000 cash with conditions he has no contact with the victim and does not enter Walmart.