Police in Dundee are hunting a thief who stole a woman’s handbag while she attended mass in a Lochee church.
Catherine Findlay, 75, from the Dryburgh area, was at St Mary’s Church last Saturday when a thief took her bag from the seat.
The theft was the second to hit the church in recent weeks and the third since Christmas.
“He took my whole handbag,” Mrs Findlay said. “It was sitting on the seat beside me.”
Mrs Findlay thinks the man managed to pull the bag through from the seat in front and hide it under his coat.
“It was all very blatant,” she said. “We think they have an idea who did it.”
Mrs Findlay was very fortunate as a fellow member of the congregation pursued the thief.
“I got everything back,” she said.
“There was a young man in the church who chased after him and managed to get my bag back. I was very lucky. The thief didn’t get anything.
“The last woman it happened to had her money taken but the cards were left there.”
The previous theft occurred shortly before Mrs Findlay’s bag was taken, while a bag snatcher targeted the same church just after Christmas.
Father Aldo Angelosanto, priest at St Mary’s, said he had an idea who the perpetrators were. “I’m disappointed in many ways,” he said.
“I suspect that some of those who come to our door and receive food parcels are those committing theft. I do feel there are some people at rock bottom.
I know that social services are stretched and the political will is tough love, but I think the love part is stretched.”
However, Father Aldo stressed the three thefts were not an “epidemic”.
“The police have been informed and they have been very helpful,” he said.
“I’ve been telling the women not to leave their bags unguarded on the seats.”
Lochee councillor Tom Ferguson said the thefts in church showed how desperate some people were.
“This is terrible,” he said.
“I spoke to Aldo after the Christmas one. There’s absolutely nothing sacred now. This is symptomatic of the times.
“It shows the depths that people will go to. There’s other ways for people to feed themselves, though they may be feeding other habits.”
A spokeswoman for the police said: “Police Scotland Tayside Division officers are following a positive line of inquiry in connection with the theft from St Mary’s Church.”