"He was just tugging me and the purse, and I just started slashing at him," says Tracy Mann, 21, of Gilbert, who is three months pregnant. She said she always carries her pocketknife "because you just never know."

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PHOENIX — A pregnant woman fended off a thief with a pocketknife in Gilbert and later said the man had "messed with the wrong girl."

Tracy Mann, 21, who said she is three months pregnant, was walking home from work at about 12:40 a.m. Thursday when she spotted a truck parked with its door open and no one inside.

Mann became suspicious and pulled out her pocketknife.

That's when a man appeared and asked Mann for a cigarette and then to borrow her cell phone. Mann said she didn't answer him either time and kept walking, but had flipped open the knife's blade.

The man then grabbed her purse and started pulling it along with Mann.

Mann fought back with the knife. "He was just tugging me and the purse, and I just started slashing at him," she said.

She said she didn't stop slashing until the man let her go and ran away. Mann followed him up an embankment of rocks to a waiting truck so she could write down the license plate number.

Mesa police found the truck a short time later in Mesa and arrested Filemon Del Hoyo, 18, Abel Lorenzo Reyes, 18, and Isidro Mendoza, 22, all of Mesa.

Police say Del Hoyo was the one who tried to grab Mann's purse. He was taken to a hospital and had surgery for knife wounds. He faces attempted-robbery charges, and Reyes and Mendoza face charges of conspiracy to commit robbery.

Del Hoyo, an illegal immigrant, had been arrested last month on charges of third-degree burglary and underage drinking. He was sentenced to probation and was voluntarily removed from the country on Monday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Vinnie Picard said.

That means Del Hoyo illegally re-entered the country between Monday and Thursday.

Del Hoyo was discharged from the hospital Friday afternoon, but it was unclear if he was in custody.

Reyes and Mendoza were being held in Maricopa County jail.

Gilbert police spokesman Lt. Eric Shuhandler praised Mann's ability to defend herself. "Good for her for being aware of her surroundings and not becoming a victim," he said.

Mann credited growing up in Chicago for being tough. She said she always carries her pocketknife "because you just never know."