Pensioners hunted after shopper’s purse stolen

Ian Reid (57), of Rawmarsh, said he had been gobsmacked to see a grey-haired woman in her 80s stealing his wife’s purse, helped by an accomplice believed to be in her late 60s, when he watched CCTV footage at B&M’s Parkgate Shoppimg store.

The elderly pair, who he believed were either mother and daughter or friends, made off with £210 in cash and his house keys after fingering his wife’s purse on Saturday, November 25.

Builder Mr Reid said: “We could not believe what we saw.

“We could understand if it was a young lad with problems, but not OAPs.

“It’s made us more suspicious of everyone now, my wife’s in a right state, I just can’t believe it.

“I would have thought two old women would have had more dignity than to steal somebody’s purse.”

Mr Reid said his 59-year-old wife Alison had placed a carrier bag containing her purse on a shelf while she looked at bathroom items.

She then walked up the aisle with her shopping trolley, accidentally leaving her bag on the shelf for a few minutes.

It had gone when she went back to fetch it, Mr Reid said.

He added: “My wife was panicking as there was a lot of money in the bag.

“We had money to buy our 14-year-old granddaughter’s Christmas presents, money we were taking to the bank to pay our mortgage and £30 our elderly neighbours had given us to as they’re in their 90s and are unable to get out to do their shopping.”

The store manager helped them in their frantic search and then escorted them to the security room to look at the CCTV footage.

“As we were being taken in, we walked passed these two old ladies on an aisle with a trolley and didn’t think anything of it.” he said.

“They 100 per cent  knew who we were and just let us walk past them and off they went with it.”

The couple were stunned to watch the CCTV and discover the OAPs were the culprits.

Mr Reid said: “The older woman can be seen looking at my wife’s bag and then walks away.

“She returns and picks the bag up and puts it in her trolley while she’s about five yards behind us.”

Mr Reid said the older woman could then be seen passing the bag to her accomplice, who he believed had then taken the purse out and dumped the carrier bag, which was later found by a shop worker.

He added: “The older one then goes to the checkout and could not get her stuff on the conveyor belt fast enough.”

Mr Reid said that by the time the couple had realised what had happened, the thieves had disappeared.

“These two old sods pinched my wife’s purse out of her bag – if it had been a young lad doing it to them it would have been in the national newspapers now,” he said.

“If I see them again I will challenge them.”

Mr Reid said he was unsure if the store had passed the information on the the police.

B&M were unavailable for comment and South Yorkshire Police has been contacted for comment.