Snatch victim, 89, reunited with treasured items in bag

Caroline Langthorpe, from the Healey area of Batley, was left distraught after her bag was snatched in Dewsbury town centre on May 8.

A photograph of sentimental value and a national newspaper clipping about her work as a nut cracker in the 1930s were among the items stolen.

But the newly formed Dewsbury Town Centre Team has helped to return a smile to the pensioner's face after her bag was recovered.

Pc Gary Guy, of the town centre team, said: "Although an amount of cash had been taken from the bag, the rest of its contents were still there. Mrs Langthorpe was particularly pleased to see that she still had an old photo which had been taken during her 20s. She also had a photo of her grand daughter, which I know meant a lot to have it back.

"The newspaper item which was printed in a national newspaper, was about her work as a nut cracker and something she was really happy to see returned. It would have been unlikely that she'd have been able to replace it if the bag had not been recovered.

"Knowing that the article and her personal photo were important to her, we decided to frame them and present them back to her as a gesture."

Mrs Langthorpe said she was extremely pleased to see her possessions returned.

"I feel better to think that I have got my bag back, it didn't really matter about the money. I've been telling everybody about the framing of the article and the photo. It was a really nice thought," she said.

"The newspaper cutting was about my job when I was 14 years old. My daughter asked if I'd seen a question in the Daily Mail about cracking nuts and asked if I could answer it. So I wrote about my job and sent it in.

"There used to be 10 of us at a table who went through a box of Brazil nuts and put shells into a bin. When you talk to people they don't believe that this kind of work happened."

The Dewsbury Town Centre Team is working closely with stores to catch out those responsible for such thefts.

Pc Guy said that purse chains or secret pockets are effective methods of reducing a person's chances of becoming a victim.