Pensioner distressed by handbag robbery at Melton cemetery

A Melton pensioner has warned other people to be wary of visitng the town's cemetery on their own after a robber threw a memorial plant holder through her car window and stole her handbag.
Jennifer Hughes by her father's gravestone in Melton's Thorpe Road cemetery - her car is visible in the background where it was parked when someone smashed the window to steal her handbag EMN-170808-133041001Jennifer Hughes by her father's gravestone in Melton's Thorpe Road cemetery - her car is visible in the background where it was parked when someone smashed the window to steal her handbag EMN-170808-133041001
Jennifer Hughes by her father's gravestone in Melton's Thorpe Road cemetery - her car is visible in the background where it was parked when someone smashed the window to steal her handbag EMN-170808-133041001

Jennifer Hughes went to the Thorpe Road graveyard at 5.30pm on Sunday to clean and leave fresh flowers at the plots for her parents, Fred and Elsie Clamp.

She heard a loud bang but didn’t think anything of it until she returned to her car to find the front passenger window smashed and her handbag gone.

Mrs Hughes (70), who lives with husband Reg at Waltham, said: “I did think about taking my bag with me but now I think I had a lucky escape because they might have tried to rob me at the graveside.

“I was shocked with disbelief when it happened because you don’t expect it to happen in a place like a cemetery.

“I walked over to the Tesco’s petrol station and people were very kind to me when I told them about it.

“I really want to warn other people not to go down there on their own.

“The other day I saw four ladies and a gentleman visiting graves on their own.

“I would hate anything like to happen to anyone else.”

Mrs Hughes had her mobile phone, purse, driving licence, credit cards and two pairs of glasses in the stolen Radley bag, which she said had bought recently as a treat.

The item used to smash her car window had come from the grave of Kenneth Mogg, a British soldier who was shot dead at the age of 26 while serving in Northern Ireland in July 1972.