QUINCY (CBS) – An off-duty transit police officer turned the tables on a would-be robber early Thursday morning.

The unidentified officer was still in uniform in her SUV on Bay State Road when authorities say a tall, black man in dark clothes pulled up in a purple Dodge Caravan, stepped out and approached her.

They say he showed her a weapon and tried to rob her, but he took off when she told him she was a transit police officer.

She followed the minivan and it eventually crashed off of Old Colony Avenue in Quincy.

The driver ran off and police are still looking for him.

Investigators believe the van may be linked to a recent robbery on the Boston-Quincy line.