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Original poster

Some scumbag stole my purse and wallet today :(

38 replies

Hulababy · 10/12/2004 19:25

I'm fine but a bit miffed, and now have a raging headache - must be fromt he stress!

Was shopping with Mollie. Had had a lovely time and been to see Father Christmas. As we were passing Woolworths I thought we'd pop in and pick up some pants and tights for Mollie. As normal I put basket on top of pushchair hood, and as it's Cjristmas I am extra careful with security, so checked my bag was fine and fastened - it was. I have a pram bag with a zip and both purse and wallet were at bottom of this. And it fits right under handles so safer than ,y pockets or so I thought.

Did shopping and queued to pay. Tooka ges as person in front had tons of stuff. When my turn I icked up basket and put it on till. All the time in the shop and in que, I held onto pushchair handle - always do to be honest.

Turned to get my wallet to pay and noticed my bag wide open. It doesn't open like that just from unzipping - you'd have to go right into it first. Then noticed both my wallet and my purse had gone.

Luckily purse had just 70p left in it and I had no cash in wallets. Just my cards.

AS I spoke to an assistant two women heard me and came over. One woman had just caught a women going into her firend's bag and had pushed her away. The women - had good description of a shortish black women, quite young - hadwalked off swiftly out of shop, closely followed by a tall, young black guy - who had been stood behind me int he queue apparntly. Looks like they'd been together and working together to do this.

The two women gave statements to manager and were able to spot both man and woman on the CCTV videos, leaving the shop.

Police came to take my statement (took ages, but it is a busy time). The policeman was lovely. I upset Mollie by refusing the lft home in a police car though but DH works in town and we live in town too, so not needed.

So, there we go. Not much I could have done about it to be honest. One of those things.

But , please everyone - be careful when shopping. I was lucky - I had no cash and DH cancelled all cards within 15 minutes of it happening.

Take care! Be careful!

OP posts:
JoolsTide · 10/12/2004 19:26

hope you get it back.

The other day dh went to Tesco and found a bag someone had left in a trolley so he took it round to her later that evening - boy was she grateful!

sophabaubles · 10/12/2004 19:26

you poor thing..so sorry this happened to you...you're being v brave about it, but it's a horrible invasion of your space and person...

pixiefish · 10/12/2004 19:26

Sad for you Hula
Angry at bloody thieves

misdee · 10/12/2004 19:27

thats awful!!!

bet they dont catch them wither. they didnt manage to get any of your cash tho did they? from the banks etc?

Christmassbee · 10/12/2004 19:27

Some people are arses. Glad you didn't lose any cash (well other than 70p!).

winterwarmmummer · 10/12/2004 19:27

Bad luck, but well done for getting witnesses. Maybe you will get lucky and they will be caught out. Hope your luck gets better Wink

Yorkiegirl · 10/12/2004 19:27

hope you're ok hula! What a nightmare.
{{{hugs}}} to you and DD

Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 19:30

Cheers. I'm okay really. Was remarkably calm throughout the wait and delaing with police. Now have massive headache, but a bottle of red wine will help that later. Got Christmas tree with DH on way home too - so feeling a bit more cheery from that.

They didn't get chance to get any thing from cards. I phone DH as soon as I new and within 15 minutes of it happening my cards were cancelled.

Very unlikely to get them back though. TBH, my wallet and purse are the only valuab;e things they'd ended up with, and even they aren't worth that much.

So glad that I rarely carry cash with me.

OP posts:
pixiefish · 10/12/2004 19:31

Attack that crate now Hula- sending big hugs

hercyulelog · 10/12/2004 19:32

How irritating Hulababy. Sad
I hope you get new cards in time for more shopping before xmas.

cupcakes · 10/12/2004 19:35

Oh, that's so upsetting! A couple of years ago some 'youths' stole my nappy bag from the changing room of the private pool we were using (you can hire it by the half hour). It was in a small village on private land but they walked straight in and stole the only bag there... I was devastated because it had everything in: polaroid pictures of ds as a teeny baby (unreplaceable), his toys and nappies, my filofax with all my addresses in, my only pair of glasses (which I have to wear), the Tiffany necklace my dh gave me when we got engaged, the watch he gave me for my birthday, the diamond stud earrings (tiny but hugely sentimental) he gave me for our anniversary... Obviously I now take everything into the pool with me!
I now believe in karma though - a few weeks later we won a couple of thousand pounds on the lottery and were able to replace everything and buy a new bed!

Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 19:35

Cards should take up to 7 days, so until then we don't have a credit card. Mine was DH's account, so both cards are obviously unusable now. He can use his cash card still though, so at least we do have some money!

All this for a pair of Disney Princess pants!!!

OP posts:
Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 21:50

Feeling much better. Had half a bottl of lovely red wine, and have finished decorating my christmas tree. Feel mellow and cheery right now :)

OP posts:
Momparupapumpum · 10/12/2004 21:55

Sorry to hear your shopping trip wasn't a nice one, Hula.

JJ · 10/12/2004 21:57

Hulababy, thanks for the heads up. I have some hugely sentimental stuff in my wallet, but from now on will take only the necessities for the shop.

Caligulights · 10/12/2004 21:58

Glad you're feeling better Hula.

You're lucky the police bothered to take a statement from you. When my purse was stolen a couple of years ago, I called them to report it, and the operator asked me if I'd seen the thief actually take the purse. "No? Oh, well in that case it gets recorded in the crime figures as a loss."

"But I didn't lose it - it was stolen by a young woman when I briefly turned away from my buggy to deal with my son needing to pull his trousers up after using the loo. I turned back, she'd left the loo, and my purse had left with her. Up to that point, I'd had the purse with me in the nappy bag and she was the only other person in the loo."

"Sorry, if you didn't actually see her take it, then it hasn't been stolen, it's been lost".

Funnily enough, there has been a dramatic decrease in certain crime figures in my area!

serenequeen · 10/12/2004 22:01

hulababy, so sorry to read this. althought the financial impact was successfully mitigated, it is still a horrible thing to happen and so inconvenient to be without cards Sad

GoodKingWestCountryLass · 10/12/2004 22:01

Have you checked that you can't use the other credit card? When we have replaced cards the other card to the joint account is still valid (they have different security codes). Ours were with Abbey so other banks cards might be different.

I am sorry you were mugged, obviously these pair were professionals Angry My DH had his car broken into last night, it really pisses me off that these people don't give a toss!

Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 22:05

That's not good at all :(

Luckily the police here (4 came in the end - two pairs turned up around the same time!) were lovely. Helped as there was someone else who had just caught someone just going into their bag who could give a description of both that woman and the man they believe was with her (and who'd been stood behind me at the time). Police were really helpful and took statement and CCTV video. Offered me a lift home and everything.

JJ - that was main reason for posting TBH (well, and a rant). I don't carry cash much so was lucky inthat sense, and the photos Ihave are only printouts from the computer. Only ID in there was my dricing license which can easily be replaced. But I don some people carry alsorts in their wallets. So:

Please, everyone, be really careful with your stuff. Be extra vigilent and keep double checking all the time. This happened in the space of 2-3 minutes whilst I was holding the pushchair - the bag was under the handle I was holding. Keep an eye out as much as you can.

OP posts:
JaNgLyBELLS · 10/12/2004 22:05

Oh, I hope they catch 'em! Angry So sorry this happened Hulababy! Hope you feel better soon.

Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 22:06

GoodKingWestCountryLass - DH checked and he can't use his. They have same number and same security number on the reverse.

So glad DH was able to cancel everything so quickly. He was also able to check that they hadn't been used since I had lost them, which they hadn't.

OP posts:
JanH · 10/12/2004 22:08

Hula, you may well get some replacements sooner than 7 days - we recently had to cancel one card and the replacement arrived much sooner than they said, 3-4 days tops.

Horrible for you, glad you didn't lose anything precious, and thanks for the warning.

Original poster
Hulababy · 10/12/2004 22:10

Hope they do come sooner JanH - hate carrying cash (for this reason).

DH's collaegues reckon he set it up to stop me spending so much money on his credit card Grin

OP posts:
Levanna · 10/12/2004 23:41

Really sorry to hear about this, thanks for the reminder too.
As if shopping wasn't stressfull enough at this time of year!

xmashampermunker · 10/12/2004 23:52

Sorry this happened Hulababy - but very glad nothing irreplaceable was taken. Angry at thieving b*stards. Am going to go through my wallet now - thanks HB.

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