Ever lost your purse?

Glad your disaster turned out to have such a happy ending! It's such a pain in the butt to have to go through all those cancellations and wait for new cards to be sent <groan>

I was robbed in M and S last year and they got my credit cards, driving licence, store cards, cash and the photos of my two grandsons. It took me a month or so to recover and now my purses are chained inside my bag.

Glad your purse was returned Mrsmopp

I lost my purse in a shop once when my children were very young and the thing that upset me most was losing their birth photographs. I reported it to the police as it had been stolen in a town centre shop and some time later - a few months - a very nice PC came to the door.

He told me that they had caught a prolific purse thief who had confessed to numerous thefts - including from the shop I had been in and that he just took the cash out and then threw the purses in the canal. In a way that helped me to come to terms with it as no-one was in possession of my babies' photos.

It is the most awful feeling when you realise that your purse has gone plus all the things you keep in there.

I picked up a carrier bag in a street because it was blowing about. I was horrified to find a purse in it . I was with a friend and opening it there was only a library card a bus pass and a key, I got DH to phone the library and although they would not tell DH the address they kept phoning the number in their records. Eventually they got through. The lady was a pensioner. £70 was in her purse. She had got home because she kept a £10 separate but was distraught at losing her key. Her neighbour had a spare. The librarian knew DH and told the lady we had got it and would bring it back that evening if she was happy to give us her address. She was thrilled to have her purse back and her key. She said nothing had gone right for her since she had turned 80. She lived way out of Durham but every time we go past the turnoff to her home we mentally wave at Mildred.

Back in 1986, we were holidaying in Watchet, Somerset. One day we drove into Minehead, had a good look around, and partook of refreshments whilst there. When we arrived back at our holiday flat, a good half hour drive, I discovered shortly afterwards that I didn`t have my purse, which contained not only our food money, but our spending money for the next 5 days. After a lot of thought, we remembered the name of a pub where we`d had a cold drink, sitting outside at a table next to a low wall adjacent to the footpath. Not expecting any joy, I rang the pub, and he said yes, someone had handed the purse in, still intact! We drove all the way back to Minehead, but the man in the pub wouldn`t accept a reward, he said it wasn`t him who`d found it.

I lost my purse years ago when I was out buying new school clothes for the children. A bit of a disaster because it had all the money I'd taken out for the clothes. I reported it to the police but didn't expect to see it again. Several weeks later I had a phone call from the police station "Don't you want your purse?"

Apparently a lovely man had found it in the street and handed it in still intact. Someone had listed it in the wrong place and it had only just been found again.

I did have my wallet stolen on the Metro in Rome, but there was hardly any cash in it and I got to spend half an hour with a very attractive Italian policeman

Nankate, thanks for the tip about a chain to keep your purse in your bag. It's a great idea and I shall definitely do that.
Then I will need another chain to fix my bag to my belt so I don't lose my bag!

'Lost' mine in Switzerland on the way to the airport with DH to visit younger DS in London. Nice policeman in Zurich airport let me use the phone to cancel all the cards, so we arrived in London with very little available money. DS loved being the one paying for everything for a change (of course we repaid him - with a little extra for being so great )

NanKate how do you use a chain with your purse? I keep a scarf on the top of my bag to make it harder to get to my purse, but I am interested in the chain idea.

I found a wallet on a seat at Crewe station and asked the woman sitting their if it was hers. No she said and didn't seem at all concerned. I handed it to the guard and she rushed it into the lost property office and was calling the owners name on the announcements before I even left the station. As it would have had his details in I assume it could probably be returned to him eventually, via his bank or whatever.

There not their.

When our youngest son was 6 he picked up a purse from the ground in the funfair at Skegness. We looked inside, there were just a few coppers, but also a bus ticket and a library ticket. We took it to the police station, and 3 weeks later a letter arrived for our son, with a £1 reward. He was thrilled, he`d never had so much money before. There was a note saying that she was on a day trip and couldn`t have got home without the bus ticket.
A different story when our daughter 3, then aged 10, found a wallet in the street in town, containing £120, quite a lot in 1977, took it to the police station, the person who lost it was already there, just took it off her, said "thanks" and walked away.

A lady that I help had her purse lifted while she was in a local supermarket. They weren't very helpful but police eventually recorded the theft. £80 cashs/cards etc. A couple days later a police support officer turned up to see if she was ok and gave her a chain to attach a purse to her bag.
Few days later a chap knocked on her door, said that while walking his dog he had found her purse (minus the cash but all cards still inside) thrown in a field in nearby town. Another persons with it, which he also returned.

When we were living in a NE town (which will be nameless) We were robbed a few times, cars, burglaries, bag snatching etc.
The worst though was someone coming into the house and taking my handbag. As others have said, my purse contained several cards and personal photos.
Even though I cancelled all cards the thief had still managed to spend about £2000, maybe some cheques used, which the bank covered.
After that I went without a card for a long time.
Also bought a waist purse which I still use when out shopping.And still have nightmares about losing my handbag and purse.

Nearly 30 years ago I was getting ready for a trip into town with my DC to buy school clothes. My purse, with a goodly sum of cash inside, was already zipped into my shopping bag on the kitchen work surface. When we got to the bus stop, no purse. Someone must have walked in through the (yes, unlocked) front door, along the hall (past the door to the room we were in), unzipped the bag, looked for the purse, taken it (and nothing else), zipped it back up and vanished. I still can't believe they were so precise!

And how did they know the purse was in there?
Yes our back door was open too. I have a good idea who the thief was, they lived opposite at the back , and moved soon after.

I was pick pocketed cleverly once. Was on way to Chelsea flower show with group of friends. My purse was in my bag with bag zipped up. Friends got on the tube, and an Eastern European woman pushed in front of me and stood blocking my way on. Thinking 'how rude' I went back and forth trying to get past her, fearing the doors would close and my friends disappear! As I eventually barged past. She lightly stepped backwards off of the train as the doors closed and I noticed she was standing with a group as the train left. I realised when I got to the show my purse was gone. She must have had an accomplice behind me, unzipping and nabbing purse while I was preoccupied trying to get past her.

Did she actually say what country she was from?? Unpleasant experience though.

I have had my purse stolen only once, but it caused so much hassle! I now have a separate purse and card wallet, each of which is attached to a long chain connected to my handbag, as recommended by NanKate. I think it may have been her who mentioned hers on here before, prompting me to buy them. Mine are 2 ft long so that I can leave my bag on my shoulder when making payments. Some have a clip each end, others a key ring one end and clip the other. I get a few funny looks at the till sometimes, but I don't care!
purse chain

bellanonna it was pretty obvious. Wearing scarves over their heads, wrapped under their chins, long skirts to the floor, olive skinned and in a group with some olive skinned men. No, she didn't announce, before she nicked my purse, what nationality she was. But they weren't black, they weren't white, they weren't Indian or oriental. So that was my assumption. Hope that's clear. I am not racist. I just said it as it was.

My dd thought her purse had been stolen at Waterloo station in the teeming rush hour. Cancelled cards and whatnot, but did check at Lost Property the next day, just in case. And lo, some kind person had handed it in, intact - she had evidently dropped it somehow. Does restore your faith.

We had burglars who took laptops, Dh's iPhone (my phone too ancient! to bother with!) and my purse out of my bag.

Some months later someone who lives several hundred yards away put it through the letterbox while we were out. They had found it in their garden where someone had evidently chucked it over the fence. It was in a sad state but there were my driving licence, library card and EEC health card - I hadn't bothered replacing any of them.
I hardly ever keep much cash in my purse so they'd have been disappointed there.

However a few years previously someone yanked open the passenger door of my car while I was waiting at a busy junction in the dark and rain. He just grabbed my bag off the front seat and scarpered. If only I'd had central locking on he couldn't have done it - I had made it so easy for him. Please use your central locking! Having said that I STILL don't always remember...

After mine was stolen I stopped using a handbag for a while. I decided it wasn't really necessary and I had a waist purse covered by my coat.
In spite of that, I was once (in the same town) walking along carrying a sort of shopping bag, and 2 youths drove up on a motor bike. One got off and tried to grab my shopping bag. I kept hold of it and tugged, he fell over!I wished after I had kicked him in the ...But the strap broke and he got it - but nothing in it They drove off.

I have heard that the motor bike robbers often carry a knife to cut the straps of bags.

Some years ago I was walking in my village when a youth ran up behind me shouting 'Give me your purse'. I amazed myself by spinning and giving him a backwards karate kick in the b***s whereupon he scarpered!. I have never performed such a move before or since!

On a recent visit to Chesterfield, the Police there were handing out purse chains to shoppers. I took one gratefully. It's a bit of a nuiscance but at least you have a fighting chance if someone dips your bag. Or cuts it. A friend of mine had hers taken in a crowded street and found a large slash in the leather where they had cut the bag to get their hand in. She felt nothing. I have very nearly lost my bag a couple of times through my own stupidity. I used to hang it on the hook on the supermarket trolley, and then forget to take it off when I loaded the shopping into the car. Each time, some kind soul took it back into the store. Restores your faith in human nature. Now I use an across the body bag!