Purse stealing gang on prowl

Monday 24th March 2008, 1:29PM GMT.

pursegang2.jpgGangs of ‘purse dippers’ are preying on elderly shoppers in the Black Country and even emptying their bank accounts, police revealed today.

Officers are so concerned about the attacks they are offering electronic alarms to pensioners.

Today they released this CCTV image of two men wanted over a string of thefts.

The crimes are believed to involve gangs from Eastern Europe and have happened across the area, including one in Dudley when a woman in her 80s was targeted while browsing through birthday cards.

The victim had briefly put down her bag in Spencers indoor market and when she picked it up, £500 in cash and a building society book had been snatched.

The following day the crooks were caught on camera trying to use the building society book in Oswestry.

Officers say the gang plunders their victims’ savings, as they often find PIN numbers in purses alongside cash cards.

Sgt Simon Holloway, from Dudley police station, said the pensioner was badly shaken by the robbery.

“The victim had a large amount of cash stolen which she had only just withdrawn from the bank,” he said.

“She was very distressed and unfortunately she cannot give us a description as she did not see the offenders.”

He said the purse dippers tended to be Eastern Europeans “who prey on old ladies out shopping with their purse inside their bag.”

West Midlands Police has now invested £500 on 200 alarms which shoppers can attach to their purse and bag.

Anyone who wants a purse alarm or has information about the thieves should contact Sgt Holloway on 0845 113 5000 ext 79016591.


  1. 1
    rowley,wolves

    if i say what i think about this,you won’t publish it & if you did i’d be arrested.but this is that moron tony blair’s fault fot letting them in when the rest of the eu,signed a clause stopping them,coming into there countries.

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  2. 2
    nos

    when caught lets hope they get deported ? or is that asking to much for todays britain

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  3. 3
    2nd class citizen

    “Here, here!!!” Rowley Wolves – well said mate!!!

    Nos – are you serious???? Deported???? You know all too well that these poor innocent people just don’t understand the rules in this country and, therefore, have a ‘get out of jail free card’ whenever they’re caught doing something naughty. Well, that is, if the police bother to arrest them in the first place!!!

    Well done Labour!!!

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  4. 4
    Karen

    And is anyone remotely surprised – this was known to happen, or at least by Joe Public. These people should be birched to an inch of their life then kicked out of England posthaste. I am fed up of the indeginous population continually having to put up with the trash that is coming in.

    Report abuse

  5. 5
    tagg

    im going to move aborad and live other countries state systems for a while. Come back over here a couple of years later, open up a hand car wash, become totally invisible to the system. No doubt then i will have a better standard of living then than i do now. Brassed of yes. Fed up yes. What is happening to our City?

    Report abuse

  6. 6
    phil

    dont deport them make them live by the dogooders and lawyers who seem to like them so much they can bloody well have them

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  7. 7
    Dudley Bloke

    Eastern Europeans who prey on “old ladies” out shopping.

    It just shows you what “scum” New Labour are letting into this country.

    But ask a Labour MP about it (after they have lifted there head out of the sand) they will say “theres no proof they are Eastern european.

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  8. 8
    rj

    This labour gov, have betrayed us all in the UK and now we are all paying the price of the low life of people going here and robbing us of what is ours.I have been all over europe but have not known like what is happening here now

    Report abuse

  9. 9
    phil

    talking to some polish people about a year ago and they said when these eastern europeans come he was saying they have these in poland his words not mine there pickpockets and fraudsters

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  10. 10
    2nd class citizen

    It’s not just Britain, it seems… as a friend of mine lived in Spain for 5 years and – on returning home – commented that the area he’d lived in abroad had gone downhill quickly (soaring crime rate, etc), after a sudden influx of these scum-bags.

    I’m interested to re-cap on how this matter all started in the first place…. Didn’t these people first start flooding into the country under the guise of ‘asylum-seekers’??? (i.e. desperately fleeing their respective countries through fear and so on). Suddenly, in these P.C. times, we’re told we are no longer allowed to call them that, as they’re now officially referred to as ‘migrant workers’…. (i.e. fled their country in order to come to Britain to open up a dodgy car-wash business). Is it just me, or has no one else noticed that chalk has suddenly become cheese overnight in this scenario???

    Of course, the former obviously screams ‘hand held out asking for help’ – benefits, council house, NHS treatment and all of the perks that come with it – while the latter says ‘happy helping with the economy’. Forget the monicker, it’s just the same old scum, it seems…. just appearing under a more convenient title for the government to work with and try and hoodwink the tax paying public.

    I wonder how many people sick and tired of this situation voted Labour????

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  11. 11
    Bob

    We let this scum in while we boot our friends like the Gurkhas who fought for this country out and without a pension. Come on in eastern europe and steal what you like…..so long as you are not alowed near our MPs. They want to steal it first.

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  12. 12
    stu

    They are only doing what the government are doing, screwing us. I cannot believe that money I pay in tax is being sent to eastern europe in the form of child benefit for their kids. This government really needs to wake up otherwise I’m afraid old Enoch could be prooved right.

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  13. 13
    phil

    MPS that represent us should live here permanently not on a one off basis when they visit and all the trimmings are put out and the cracks are hidden for the day all our main parties are spineless.no10 theres a good many feel that way stand up and be counted vote for a party that puts us before all these good for the economy bafoons.get one day MPS out

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  14. 14
    BRUCE THOMSON

    SAME SORT OF PROBLEMS HERE IN THE PARIS AREA.
    PS WHO IS BENEFITING OUT OF THE BIG EUROPEAN UNION?
    AT LEAST ONE THING HAS BACKFIRED.CHEAP RENAULTS FROM DACIA IN ROUMANIA.NOW DACIA ARE ON STRIKE FOR 40% MORE PAY.
    OUR PROBLEM IS MORE THE ROMS WHO HAVE NO MONEY LIVING IN BEATEN UP SHACKS AND BROKENDOWN CARAVANS ON MOTORWAYS,RAILWAY EMBANKMENTS ETC.
    THEY ARE BEGGING ALL OVER THE TRANSPORT SYSTEM AND ALSO REGULARLY INVOLVED IN THINGS LIKE METAL THEFT INCIDENTS ETC…

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  15. 15
    TIPTON BORN AND BRED

    nu labour same old story,flood the country with career criminals and this is what you get,we need a aussie system asap if your caught doing wrong in our country your deported asap,but then the pc looney human right
    lawyers will be rubbing there hands defending these lowlifes.

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  16. 16
    Worried!

    To put a stop to our old people suffering, we need to remove the source of this. So at the next General Election, get off to the polling station and vote the Communists out, Sorry, I meant New Labour, hang on what’s the difference. Neither give their people a say in their own country. And its because of being in Europe that we’ve got this scum walking our streets and preying upon our OAP’s.

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