Daylight robbery: thief steals pensioner's handbag while she visits graves (From Thisisdorset)

Daylight robbery: thief steals pensioner's handbag while she visits graves

10:00am Saturday 22nd September 2012 in Latest By Arron Hendy

AN 84-YEAR-OLD had her handbag and coat stolen as she watered flowers at her loved ones’ graves.

The grandmother believes the thief was hiding in Poole Cemetery, waiting for her to get out of her car before grabbing the handbag, her coat and cash from the vehicle.

The pensioner, who asked not to be named, said she normally locks her car but was only yards away when she looked up and saw the thief fleeing towards Old Farm Road.

“I got out to water the flowers and was on my way back to the car when I saw him running off with it,” she said.

“He must’ve been waiting.

“It was so quick and suddenly he was gone.”

The woman was left upset and shocked by her ordeal and rushed to get her bank cards cancelled.

The victim’s sister in-law, Audrey Randall, contacted the Daily Echo as she was so disgusted at what her sister-in-law went through.

Audrey’s brother David died in March and is buried next to her parents Albert and Dorothy at the graves she was tending when the theft happened.

Audrey, 81, of Bournemouth, said; “I’m so incensed.

“She’s so upset and in shock and so would I be.

“She was only yards from her car so it’s despicable.”

Audrey said her sister in law is now afraid to go in her own garden without locking the door.

“She saw him do it,” Audrey added.

“But he just snatched them and he was gone so what could she do?

“I can’t get over it.”

The thief is believed to have been a man and was wearing a hooded top during the theft.

A Dorset Police spokesman said they received the report of the theft from the red Nissan Sunny in the cemetery off Dorchester Road in Poole.

He said: “We received a report of a theft from an unattended motor vehicle at Poole Cemetery on Dorchester Road.

“The incident is believed to have taken place sometime betw-een 2.45pm and 2.50pm on Friday September 7.

“A handbag and jacket was taken from the front seat of a red Nissan Sunny.”

Any witnesses or anyone with information on the incident please contact Dorset Police on 101.

Poole Council’s response to victim’s trauma

POOLE council said their staff are at the cemetery each day.

Shaun Robson, head of environmental and consumer protection services, said: “Incidents of this nature are very rare in Poole’s cemeteries, in fact, this is the first incident of this type that we are aware of in recent years.

“We have maintenance staff on site each day but their focus is on burials and maintenance.

“We do not have security patrols at our cemeteries and we recognise that car crime on Poole is at a very low level. We would support police advice and encourage visitors to take reasonable steps to ensure that their belongings are not left on display in parked cars.”