A GRIEVING widow lost £500 and treasured photos of her late husband, when her handbag was stolen from her car as she laid flowers on his grave over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Heartbroken Teresa Calipa, 70, whose beloved husband died six months ago, went with her daughter to Wimborne Road Bournemouth Cemetery at around 4pm on Saturday afternoon.

She said: “I would never normally leave my handbag in the car, but we had so many flowers between us that we couldn’t carry everything.

“When we came back we noticed the passenger window had been smashed with an old grave stone and both our our handbags were gone. It was such a terrible shock.”

Mrs Calipa who runs a Bed & Breakfast in Poole and visits her husband’s grave every week, is now urging visitors to the cemetery to be on their guard.

She suspects a girl who she says was acting suspiciously as they returned to the car park.

Mrs Calipa also claims she saw the same girl drawing money from a nearby cashpoint and £500 was subsequently debited from her bank account.

She said: “We went off in the car looking for this girl but she saw us and by the time we managed to park she had gone.

“I can’t remember everything that was in my bag, but it is very frightening, as the bag contained all my personal details and house keys which I’ve had to have copied which was also expensive.

“But I don’t really care about the money. I just want the photos of my husband back.