someone has just stolen my child's toy :(

[goldenduckling]

My ds is 2.5 and crazy about bing (annoying black rabbit on cbeebies) since there is no bing toys available yet I found a pattern online and made him a cuddly toy bing. This has received a lot of attention and have happily taken peoples email addresses and linked them to the pattern.
This morning we went to the park and a woman approached me asking about my ds's bing, I offered to email her the pattern but she said she wanted to buy the one that I had made. I explained that he wasn't for sale but she kept offering me more and more money (£50 ) in the end after trying to explain I snapped a bit, said that its my son's favourite toy and its not for sale and to please leave me alone now.
She huffed off and left with her dd, less than a minute later my ds started crying "bing gone" I assumed he had dropped him off the climbing frame but couldn't find him anywhere, I walked to the other end of the park and saw this woman getting in her car with bing in her hands! I tried to run after her but she drove off, got my phone out to try and take a picture of the number plate but it was to late.
Who on earth would do that? I'm going in between being angry and trying not to cry. Ds cried the whole way home and is now looking around trying to find him
My dd is a year old and we have been in and out of hospital with her for her whole life. I made bing as a present for ds for being angel at all of dds appointments, he even helps to stop her crying during tests.
Lucky I have lots of fabric left over so I'm desperately cutting out fabric to make another one.
I'm just in shock, who on earth would take a toy off a 2year old!
I really don't think the police would be interested in a homemade toy being stolen, sorry for the pity post, I just needed to rant

At least tell us where you are...roughly, OP.

Op I think you should call the police. This is theft. The monetary value of the toy doesn't matter, this caused your son (and you) a lot of distress.

That woman should be ashamed of herself.

OP I am so sorry this happened and your little boy is upset, but I am still laughing at "may her next poo be a hedgehog" which has to go down as a Mumsnet classic curse.

Unbelievable! I don't say this often about people but that woman is just scum. I'm also happy to send a postcard if you PM me - I even have some in the house of my local, historic city so could get it sent before last post and your DS receive it tomorrow.

I know it's not the same, but we have a stuffed bing toy that I paid someone to make for us which dd never took to - it's just sat in a toy basket since Christmas, totally unused. If you'd like it pm me and I will post it to you xx

That's awful! How can she look at it now without feeling ashamed of herself I don't know.

This is absolutely appalling! Your poor wee DS, he must be distraught.

YY to PPs' ideas of Facebook, posters, local paper and calling 101. She should be publicly shamed and flogged

That's awful, your poor DD. I hope karma gets bing thief big time.

Today is the day I hope there is a journalist reading MN. This low life scum should be named and shamed. How can a mother be so cruel to another's child is beyond me.

OP don't forget Bing will have had a spa treatment on his holiday when he comes back extra clean and without his special smell children's' favourite toys acquire

Is there any CCTV in the park or is it near a building which does? Some parks do sometimes have CCTV.

A long-shot, but worth contacting the Local Neighbourhood Watch to see if they saw anything?

What an awful thing to do!
Tweet some of the cbeebies presenters and get them to retweet.

What a bitch! She deserves some public shaming because someone who would go so low as to steal a child's toy won't be feeling bad but I bet she would feel embarrassed if everyone knew she was capable of stealing from a child.

Urgh what an absolutely vile woman

Some days I really hate people.

When my son was about the same age somebody took his Fimbo clean out of his hands in our town centre. He's 12 now and still talks about it at odd times. (He's autistic so never accepted the replacement one as he knew it wasn't his.)

This bit makes me cry but If we are ever at a car boot or charity shop and Fimbo is there he checks just incase...

I'd go down the pulic shame route on social media, maybe with a call to 101. Perhaps a call to council too, our park has cctv. Maybe yours does?

Does your town have a FB page, I would post it on there. Does the pattern have a picture I the finished toy you can post?

Absolutely disgusting!

I can't believe anyone could do this. I hope your LO isn't too upset and that you go through with a FB campaign to highlight this woman's atrocious behaviour. As PP have said, I doubt she could be shamed but at the very least it would probably make it impossible for her to let anyone ever see her ill-gotten Bing.

P.s, Love Bing and model my parenting approach on Flop...although I'm yet to see the episode where Flop spends too much time on MN.

I just want to add my horrified support to you too. Vile person. I suspect you will see her again at the park so be ready. My daughter's favourite pink cat toy (she call's him Aziz) went missing from nursery a while back - it went in the wrong bag but he never came back. Luckily we had a spare for the washing machine swap but the spare never went to nursery again. Unfortunately though because we stopped sending him to nursery my daughter fell out of love with him a bit but he still gets the occasional cuddle at bed time. Your little one will find something else to love just as much.

What a fucker . Defo post on all your local Facebook pages, hopefully the stupid bint will see not that she would feel guilty if she had the brass neck to steal off a child!!

I am marking place. Hope I'm not pregnant, because that made me teary too.

oh please put this on facebook and let us all share it. Hopefully we can get enough people looking to name and shame this cowbag.

How evil do you have to be to steal from a toddler?

My GOD what an awful woman! Just when you think that the human race couldn't get any worse, some bitch steals from a toddler.

I vote YES to a Facebook campaign to locate Bing and name and shame the cowbitchbag who stole him.

I hope DS is ok and is enjoying his trampoline and it has taken his mind off of Bing being on holiday...

Another one in shock and disgust here OP, but you, your DS,DH and mum sound so lovely.
And some of the suggestions on here are also so lovely, I do so love MN when things like this happen. Remember this when you get upset.

I really don't want to post my location, I'm holding back at posting on Facebook, I'm sure if she saw it she would just throw it away. We've just popped into town to get a couple of bits I need to make bing again, dh is in the garden swearing at a half built trampoline
I'm still in shock and had a secret little cry when ds couldn't see me. Thank you again for all the amazing offers, mumsnet is truly a beautiful place. Ds is still upset but we just keep telling him that bings on holiday and will be back on Saturday (he's at nursery tomorrow so I should be able to finish him by then) and I got him the biggest ice cream in town

Just console yourself that you are a good mum. So good that others try to buy prices of it from you, and even steal it from you!! Better to be the object of envy than the thieving gollum mum in the park who's only way to feel good is to snatch tokens of love from other parents.

Don't worry about a campaign too much Golden, everyone deals with things differently, when you get over the initial shock you might want to put something up or contact one of your local community support officers. Hope making a new bing takes your mind off things and your dh finally gets that trampoline going!