#St. Louis woman charged with kidnapping, robbing 80-year-old

A St. Louis woman has been charged with kidnapping an 80-year-old woman at gunpoint in a grocery store parking lot, authorities said.

Ginger Ephrim, 24, was charged Monday with first-degree robbery and kidnapping in a July 29 attack that started outside a Schnucks grocery store near Carondelet Park in St. Louis, where police say Ephrim shoved a sawed-off shotgun into the elderly’s woman back and threatened to kill her, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

Ephrim then ordered the woman to drive to nearby ATM to get cash, but she was unable to get any money, according to charging documents cited by the newspaper.

Ephrim proceeded to steal the woman’s cellphone and cash from her purse while still inside the car before getting out a few blocks away, leaving the elderly unharmed, police said.

The victim, who later identified Ephrim in a photo lineup, said Wednesday her alleged assailant “scared the [expletive] out of me,” the newspaper reports.

“In the middle of the day at Schnucks, you don’t expect a woman to stick something in your ribs and tell you she’s gonna kill you,” the woman who asked not to be identified told the Post-Dispatch.

Ephrim wanted $300, claiming she needed it to feed five hungry children, the victim said. A Schnucks security guard, meanwhile, told investigators customers reported seeing Ephrim trying to sell a shotgun in the store’s parking lot prior to the stickup, charging documents show.

“I kept telling her I didn’t have any money and she just kept pushing that thing in my side and saying that she’d kill me dead,” the woman continued. “She wasn’t playing with me.”

After the ATM declined the woman’s transaction, Ephrim, who was sitting in the back seat, stole credit and medical cards from her purse, as well as a cellphone and a driver’s license, the victim said.

Ephrim then asked the woman for an umbrella before she hopped out of the car, the elderly victim recalled while saying she wanted a chance to come across her attacker again.

“The Christian side of me says I gotta forgive her, but the human side of says I’d like a chance to beat the [expletive] out of her,” the woman told the newspaper, adding she complied with Ephrim’s demands because she didn’t know what to expect next.

“Desperate people will do strange things,” she said. “I’m 80. I made it this far. I don’t need to go out in a blaze of glory.”

Ephrim remained held without bail Thursday at the St. Louis City Justice Center, online records show. An attorney was not listed for her Wednesday in court records, the Post-Dispatch reports.