Stolen purse

Thanks all - a miserable experience but now I almost preach to anyone who will listen on the virtues of being ultra careful.

The anti theft chain in theory could be detached by the thief but it would take time and precision so unlikely to happen.

Finally when I am out say for a coffee I take the backpack off place it on the floor beside me and put my leg through the strap so that it can't be surruptiously pulled away. If I have it on the seat next to me I cover it with my coat.

Inspector Clouseau would be proud of me.

NanKate only just noticed this thread. Sorry to hear about your exierience but pleased you've come out fighting, as it were. All the tips on here have made me think I need to get something better than my backpack.

I detest thieves too.

I shan't unclip the chain, but thought some looked easy for a thief to detach, but keyring wouldn't be.
I had a purse stolen once in Liverpool. I stupidly wore a backpack shaped bag with visible zip, which they even did back up! Fortunately my card wallet was separate. My current bag has the purse pocket against my body.

NanKate - what a rotten experience. How I detest thieves. Some good ideas have come out of your bad experience, which is perhaps some small consolation.

I don't have to unclip it when I need a credit card I just place my bag on the counter and then rest the purse next to it when I have removed the card. No one can take it as it is still attached internally to the bag. Works really well. Glad you like the idea.

Good idea NanKate! I have just ordered a couple from Ebay for £1.69 each. Decided to go for 24" chain with keyring at one end/clip at other, more difficult to detach from purse zip than clip. I have a built in ring in my healthy back bag. I have a vision of the chain wrapping around the contents of said bag and pulling everything out with my purse when shopping! We shall see!

That would have been useful for me. In London a number of years ago I felt someone put his hand in my handbag as I got onto a bus. I turned around and there he was with my purse in his hand. I shouted "How dare you - put that down at once " and he did!!!! Dropped it and ran.

I must look at those though nan

Update.

Be aware that even after you have had your stolen credit/debit cards stopped the thieves can use your cards on Contactless. The thieves who stole my purse used it twice within an hour of the theft, however as I had officially stopped the cards the Bank is covering the cost.

I have now got a purse for cash and one for credit cards. I have bought from Amazon for £2.99 a slim anti theft chain which I attach to my purse and then clip to the inside of my bag - simples ! It is so good that I have sent for 2 more for my other purse and my car keys.

Over and out.

I have a friend who was on holiday abroad. She, her DH and friends were walking to supper one evening. She saw a couple of women nearby and as one of them attempted to steal her bag she somehow managed to swing it and hit the assailant good and hard with her bag. The would be thief went off shouting and swearing at my friend.

Sadly most of us don't get the opportunity to retaliate. Also it could prove dangerous.

They are too damn clever. Some years ago when I worked in London, I was running down the platform at Marble Arch to get to the carriage that had doors opposite the exit at my destination. I was wearing a bag with a shoulder strap and a flap that covered the whole side of the bag and buckled right underneath.

I was suddenly aware of someone running behind me and quite close so I looked over my shoulder and, sure enough, there was a young man there and when I looked at him he distanced himself and got into the immediate carriage. When I reached my carriage, I sat down, looked at my bag and discovered that the buckle under the bag was unbuckled.

Now I knew with absolute certainty that when I started my run down the platform the bag was fully buckled, buckle pin in the strap and loose end through the further bar of the buckle. Nothing was stolen, I saw him in time, and anyway the book I read on the British Rail train was at the top of the bag, which was why I knew the bag was buckled, I remembered putting the book away and fully buckling the bag.

How very sad Pamish it was cruel and totally despicable to treat your mum like this. How can they sleep in their beds at night having done such a thing. I hope one day that woman gets her comeuppance.

My mum had never been robbed in her life. She was given a sharp lesson when she was about 80, that disgusted me and everyone we knew. She used a cane and a wheely bag. One of her shopping favourites was to buy really nice cards for birthdays, she would spend ages choosing just the right one for us.

Her favourite card shop had a step up to the door. She was struggling to get up the step, and a middle-aged 'normal-looking' woman offered to help support her. You guessed it - when Mum came to pay for the cards, her purse was missing, taken from her bag.

Fortunately she was more angry than upset, but what an absolute shit that woman was - spotting a disability as an opportunity.

Thanks Nellie this whole debacle has annoyed me so much but I in no way feel fear just anger.

We have been very quick in dealing with every problem that has arisen, but I realise not everyone has a DH to be helping throughout sharing the problem, if I had been on my own there would have been a very different outcome. I am feeling sad for those more vulnerable victims who have to cope on their own, I am the lucky one.

The reason I have been so vocal on this thread is that I want something positive to come out of this robbery. From what I read many of you are rethinking how you protect yourselves when out in the big wide world. I want to beat the thieving ba****rds at their own game and let us Gransnetters come out on top.

NanKate That must have been a horrible experience.

I once had my purse pinched in Tesco's. I was doing the big week's shop and it contained all my housekeeping money for the week so I was left without either food or money.
Another time someone took my handbag as I struggled off a bus with a sleeping child in my arms.
Thieves target the most vulnerable and know that their chance of getting caught is nil.

It happens.
I had my bank account emptied by someone in Manchester, when, at that time, I'd never been there.
The bank reimbursed the lot but made me feel sick. I hadn't lost my card, neither had I ever written my PIN anywhere.

Somehow these people get around the PIN - I do not know how. Once we had £600 removed from our bank account and we have no idea how it was done - they bought up lots of perfume on ebay, which presumably they sold at a car boot sale; and they paid their council tax courtesy of our money! The bank was unable to say how they managed this feat, but they did reimburse us all the money with apparently very little interest in who might have done this or whether they might prosecute them - since they paid their council tax it would not have been beyond the wit of man to trace them.

Well done TriciaF get it sorted quickly.

Heard from Barclays Fraud Dept that one of my debit cards was used last Saturday even though we had stopped it within 20 mins. I am going into the bank tomorrow to find out how they could have done this with no pin code.

It was only £19.44 which the Bank will absorb as we had told them. I wonder if they used Contactless (I have never used it) as it has a £20 max.

If this ever happens to you keep a written record of everything you do including phone calls dates and times, as it goes into one blur after a while. I have to change all my pin numbers.

I am going to separate my cash from my cards and keep my cards in the zipper part of my bag. Someone earlier on this thread suggested it and I think it is a good idea.

I am about to get two wax effigies and a lot of sharp pins and say 'sod forgiveness'. I have told you this theft has brought out the worst in me.

I have however given an expensive handbag to Oxfam today to raise money for Nepal, so I am not all bad.

I sometimes wonder why I carry all these cards, driving licence, health membership card and topup, car keys etc with me all the time. I don't carry house keys.
This thread has reminded me of the risks, and I'm going back to using a waist purse. It's quite roomy so I can even get my specs into it.
Thanks NanKate

Stansgran, i hope someone like you finds the discards if my purse is snatched!

I worry that the other half keeps all his cards in his wallet - with his money - in his pocket. So that if it is stolen he has lost everything. I have a small handbag which I carry over my shoulder with the flap always facing toward my body. My cards are all in different places - and I only have one card which I use regularly and is readily available, in the same place every time. I am not normally paranoid about things, or tidy, but this seems to be something I do quite naturally now.

This thread reminded me that a few years ago I picked up a discarded carrier bag littering a narrow street an to my dismay there was a purse in it. I took it in to the nearest place shop and the general opinion was that it had been pick pocketed from someone's handbag as there was no money but a bus pass,a library card and a very worn house key. I got the library to phone the person up as they would not tell me her phone number. The lady was in her 80s and had the purse stolen when she was in a changing room and had stepped out to look in a full length mirror. She lived quite a way from the city but always had the foresight to carry a £10 note in her jacket pocket and a neighbour had a spare key. She had a months pension stolen. It had shaken her a lot and we got a Christmas card from her for a few years.

I recently had my purse stolen, with the usual cards etc, however I have now decided to have a separate card holder for cards and ID information, and just keep a little ready money in my purse. I have also bought a 'biker wallet' which has a chain to attach it to my handbag.

What a truly dreadful experience for you. I am so sorry and hope you are feeling better now.

Hope you are feeling more like your old self now NanKate horrible experience