BOSTON -- A Gold Star mother who was on her way to place flowers at the gravesides of her husband and son said she was robbed in a Brockton parking lot on Sunday.

Elsie Cadorette, 83, said she had just attended a church service and she was reviewing a grocery receipt outside a Belmont Street Stop & Shop when a man ripped open her car door and wrestled away her purse.

“I thought, ‘Oh, I’m going to be hijacked,’” said Cadorette at her home on Thursday.

Before the noon robbery, Cadorette had been planning to visit Melrose Cemetery to decorate the graves of her son, Marine Sgt. Michael J. Cadorette, who was killed in action in Vietnam on Dec. 7, 1968, and her husband, Robert Cadorette, a World War II veteran.

Police said the Canton man and Stoughton woman who robbed Cadorette tried to pass two fraudulent checks at the grocery store before allegedly stealing her purse outside. Surveillance cameras show the pair exiting the store and watching Cadorette load up her car and get in before the robbery, Lt. John Crowley told the Brockton Enterprise.

Cadorette believes she may have even come face-to-face with the pair inside, letting them cut in front of her in the grocery line because they had fewer items.

“I told him to go in front of me, which he did,” she told the Enterprise.

After the robbery, Cadorette went back inside the grocery store and informed employees her purse had been stolen. One person ran into the parking lot to try to catch the robber, while another telephoned police, who found the suspects hiding in a backyard on Dennis Avenue, Crowley said.

Police caught and arrested Bianca McDonald, 20, in the yard, and officers found Cadorette’s wallet, driver’s license and Stop & Shop card nearby, Crowley said.

The man, Benjamin Burnett, 29, reportedly fled on foot while officers stopped McDonald. Police said Burnett then called 911 from his cell phone and reported that an officer had been shot at a traffic stop across town to try to disrupt the foot chase, the Brockton Enterprise reports.

Dispatchers were able to determine that the call was a hoax, and a resident who saw the foot chase tackled Burnett and held him until officers arrived, Crowley said. Police said Burnett also broke into a home during the chase and stripped off his clothing to try to avoid detection.

Burnett was charged with unarmed robbery of a victim over 60, larceny from a person, breaking and entering a vehicle daytime felony, breaking and entering a residence, resisting arrest, witness intimidation and misleading report and disorderly disturbance.

McDonald was charged with unarmed robbery from a victim over 60, larceny from a person, and breaking and entering, the Brockton Enterprise reports.

Both Burnett and McDonald were arraigned Monday at Brockton District Court, and both have a probable cause hearing scheduled for May 21.