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Anne Smith, right, was with her mother, Ellen Plester, when her handbag was snatched by thieves while the pair were out shopping |
Pleas for return of tragic Paul’s photos
Family’s anguish as mobile phone with precious pictures of recent cancer victim is snatched
CRUEL thieves who stole a handbag from a blind woman’s wheelchair escaped with a mobile phone containing precious pictures of a cancer patient who died four days later.
Anne Smith lost pictures of her terminally ill son-in-law, Paul Gascoine, when her handbag containing her phone was taken last Saturday.
Ms Smith fell victim to the thieves when she was visiting her 87-year-old blind mother, Ellen Plester, in Camden Town.
She took her mother, who suffers from vascular dementia, to Camden High Street, hanging her handbag on the back of her wheelchair. But when she stopped to look at a catalogue in Argos, thieves managed to whip her bag away.
It was only when she went into the next shop that she discovered her bag – containing keys, cards, cash and her precious mobile phone – was missing.
“My phone had lots of important pictures,” she said. “What upset me is we took one of Paul, and Ellie, my granddaughter, two weeks ago, just before he died. I didn’t care that he looked ill, it was of him and Ellie. I had so many pictures of my grandchildren.
“There were pictures of Paul in my house at Christmas that I took after he was diagnosed in September. They were pictures I wanted, not because we thought he was dying, but because we were told at that time he had the all-clear.”
Ms Smith, who lives in Holloway, said: “What they’ve done and how they target people should be brought to light. I thought having a bag on a wheelchair was safe as houses. What sort of a world are living in? I’m absolutely livid. I was just numb and couldn’t believe it was gone.”
She said: “I visit my mum in St Pancras Hospital every day. I always take her to the new Eurostar building but this time I didn’t, I said, ‘we’ll have a little walk up to Camden’. I’m never going up to Camden again.”
Although the manager at Argos immediately helped Ms Smith look over CCTV images, the cameras failed to identify the thieves.
The only clue she has left is the fact that someone used her Oyster card at Hyde Park Corner at 4.14pm, 45 minutes after the theft.
Ms Smith, thanked staff at Argos for their help, is hoping this information will help police catch the culprit.
She said: “We’ve had a spate of bad luck. My daughter Kim lost her Tiffany bracelet on the bus a couple of weeks ago – it was the last thing Paul bought her for their anniversary.
“Four months ago he looked like 100 per cent. Only in the last four weeks he went from a young man to an old man.
“Seeing a boy of 39 in his prime dying is awful. He was such a beautiful person. I miss him. I absolutely adored my son-in-law.” |
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