A HEARTLESS thief pushed and shoved an elderly woman in a charity shop, before stealing her purse and treasured family photos.

Hilda Bowles, 72, said she has “lost her confidence” after the incident, in which the thief made off with just £12.

The Wimborne pensioner, who worked as a carer for 41 years before suffering from a life-threatening aneurism and stroke two years ago, said: “When you’ve worked all your life and you have cared for others all your life, you tend to feel everyone’s going to be like you but they’re not.

“There really are some uncaring people out there, there must be. I just don’t understand how anybody could do something like this, it doesn’t make sense.”

Hilda, who has four children and 12 grandchildren, said she was browsing the rails in the Marie Curie charity shop in Ferndown when she felt somebody jostling her from behind.

“I thought ‘hang on what’s happening here’ but I was trapped by a rail and couldn’t turn around to see. I’m glad I couldn’t really because who knows what might have happened.

“It could have been much worse than it was.

“Afterwards we went to the bank and I realised my purse was missing. I couldn’t believe it. There was only about £12 in it but that’s a lot of money to me.

“There were also some lovely photos of my children and grandchildren. One was my late mother-in-law’s photo of her holding one of my children in her arms, I’ll never get that back now.

“I just want to warn other people to be on their guard because I would hate for this to happen to somebody else. I’m still struggling to get over my illness and this has set me back a bit. I’m almost afraid to go out now, I keep thinking ‘will it happen again?’

Dorset Police are investigating the theft, which occurred at around lunchtime on Saturday, January 7.

Anyone with information about the incident should call them on 101.