General Chat

My handbag ,and my boss's handbag,were stolen from an unlocked cupboard at my work today.I work in a retail shop and was alone at the time.A young woman,and 2 young fellows came in to the shop
separately,and the woman lured me down to the back of the shop where I couldn't see the front counter,where the handbags were,and one of the guys came around the back of the counter and removed the handbags.I have been worried since I came to work in this shop
that this would happen,and have been constantly dreaming about my handbag being stolen,probably as a result ,so I was pretty resigned,and not at all surprised.I was wondering how I was going to get home,since my carkeys were in my bag,when the handbags were returned,with our carkeys and the shopkeys,fortunately.My boss had her purse with her,so she was okay,but my purse,my phone and my driver's licence and debit card were all missing,so I have had to report the theft to the police,the bank,and tomorrow will have to replace my driver's licence,which will be a pain,as I will have to queue
up for quite a while to do this.Fortunately only a small amount of money was stolen,as payday is tomorrow,and I had my carkeys to drive home.Needless to say,the cupboard now has a very secure lock on it!! I've never had my handbag stolen before,and expected to be devastated,but strangely enough I was very calm.

How did other people feel when this happened to them?

Margot

Well I would be worried if I had anything with my address on in my handbag and don't carry my driving licence with me for that reason except on holiday. Any thief would have your house key in your handbag and know where you live so you could be burgled as well. Remote operated car keys also help theives as well. They only need to look where you might be parked and wander by, pressing your key fob till they see lights flashing.

I heard of someone who had a handbag stolen in London while she was at a meeting and thieves phoned her address through to their mates in the Midlands and burgled her house before she got home.

I'm surprised you are calm.........how do you know they didn't get copies made of your house keys in the time the bags were missing?

So sorry to hear this. It is such a shame that an organised gang think it is OK to take what isn't theirs.

Fortunately we've never been hit quite so hard although some friends had their wallet lifted while on holiday. They were gutted to put it mildly. Other people have said they were more upset if the handbag/purse contained a treasured memento.

Assuming you didn't have your PIN number written down, I can't understand how thieves can access your account - as happened to our friends.

If your phone was on a contract, have you remembered to 'block' it? It might be worth seeing if your employers insurance will cover the cost of a replacement.

Many years ago we were burgled during the night while we were asleep. Of all the things stolen, and there was a great deal, my handbag was the most precious to me. It contained the usual purse, cards etc, but also treasured photo,s of my dad from his Navy days during WW2 which I had carried with me for years, for comfort I suppose.

A bit of a nightmare renewing my licence and cards etc but since then I have always taken my handbag to bed with me.

Ann I got my keys back within about 15-20 minutes.The thieves didn't have time to get copies made.I was concerned,initially,thinking that they only had to go out the carpark outside where my car was parked,
but it is a pretty big shopping centre with a lot of carpark areas.My son and his girlfriend were home today also,and we have a very loud burglar alarm, and 2 barking dogs who would make a huge fuss if anyone tried to burgle the house.

Detective...naturally I didn't have the pin no. written down,but if anyone went online with my card,they could easily use it to pay for any online transaction,which makes my blood run cold,and is the reason that I don't do online banking,or use that card to pay for things online,as I don't trust the system.I have stopped that card,reported my driver's licence stolen,and put a block on my phone as well.

Thank you both for your comments.

Margot.

Barb that is dreadful that you were burgled in the night when you were asleep.At least now it is easy to make copies of treasured photos etc. on a home copier,which you couldn't do previously.
Thank you for your comments too.

Ann in Australia where I am it is an offence to drive your car without your licence.You must carry it with you at all times,and I am fairly sure that you can get quite a heavy fine if you are pulled up by the police and don't have your licence on you.

Well I'm off to bed now,it's 12.42 am. I will look in sometime tomorrow
evening.

I think that carrying your driving licence should be law here too. Carrying some sort of car insurance card wouldn't be a bad idea also.

Going off on a tangent I cant see how the authorities will keep up with who have Road Taxed their vehicles now a disc doesn't have to be displayed.

Surely non payers will only be picked up if they are stopped by the police and their vehicle is checked with the DVLA. Seems to me more wont bother to road tax now especially if their vehicle doesnt have a current MOT so wont be insured either

To me its a backward step. Hope I dont have an encounter with someone who hasnt got their car covered

Shirley, the police have a monitor in their cars to automatically pick up cars that have no road tax from the reg no.

Barb But they need to be on the roads to do this

Around this area of Kent they are conspicuous by their absence , we rarely see police cars on the roads around this area

We were under the impression that, in the UK, a driver must be carrying his Driving Licence if he is driving, or supervising a learner driver.

If you have a new style one (card and paper) you can renew it or replace it on line. If you aren't on the internet, or need to provide a new photo, then it can be done by post or at a number of postoffices

(I've still got the old style paper version ;-))

When I renewed OH.s licence I did it on line and gave his passport number for the photo. I thought that was so convenient.

When I first got my licence back in 1963 and it showed the expiry date it sounded like a lifetime away and I remember laughing.

Not laughing now cuz I have to renew it next year. " a lifetime " alright ;-) ;-)

No you don't have to carry a your driving licence in the UK.

If anyone gets pulled they have to go to the Police Station in 7 days with all documents.

Mine was last reissued in 1978; the first Full one must have been 1972ish There is another 8 years life in it :-D

How horrible for you. You did well to stay calm. I have had my handbag stolen out of a supermarket and went into melt down.
Mind I did have my passport in there. I was due to travel in 3 days to see my Dad. I did also have some of the pub keys in there, which was a worry. Didn´t care about the mobile even though I had to cancel it and made the supermarket let me use the phone to cancel my cards.I also lost a very valuable ring which was annoying. As the goods in my basket were for a function I was catering for that night I eventually convinced the supermarket that the least they could do was give me the contents of my trolley seeing as they didn´t have cctv in that part of the shop.
I have had an attempted bag snatch off my shoulder andI´ve had my RV broken into whilst we slept and now I am very wary.

I rarely carry house keys with me as we have key safes on all our doors.(apart from the gate) and as I have discovered lately that so many places are making it difficult to buy on line unless you also have a mobile to get a security number.

I still think you are amazing to stay calm

:-D

as an aside, I reckon most people know that most UK traffic police cars are fitted with anpr cameras (Automatic number plate recognition)
PLUS driving through an average speed stretch are anpr cameras
PLUS many roads are fitted with lamp post anpr cameras

many one way stretches ie motor ways dual carriage way are fitted with anpr cameras,

also I believe that council cctv cameras have the anpr facility, chiefly for remotely issuing parking tickets
I don't think that you can drive very far on well used roads without getting spotted on camera,
we in Peterborough suffer from a Smart car driven around, that is fitted with anpr camera, for prosecuting bad parking......

Why do people always call them Smart cars? Nobody ever says Vauxhall car or Toyota car.

I had my handbag stolen whilst on holiday in Lanzarote. Fortunately I had left my credit cards, most money, etc in the safe back at the hotel. I only)had my phone, a relatively small amount of money, make up and comb and my hotel room keys.
The staff at the hotel were very helpful (and comforting) and had the lock on our room changed within 30 mins of us reporting it to them.