A CALLOUS thief stole a woman's handbag as she lay badly injured on a dimly-lit road – and left her alone and in great danger.

Now the victim, who is in her early 60s, says she is not sure she wants to live in the Golcar area any more – even though she has been there for 35 years.

The distinctive handbag is still missing and could be a vital clue to lead police to the thief.

The thief abandoned the woman on the ground in the middle of Banks Approach in Golcar, where she could have been run over at any time.

The woman, who does not want to be named, got off a bus near the Rising Sun at the top of Leymoor Road at 9.50pm on Tuesday night and walked into Banks Approach.

She then tripped up and fell on the uneven and potted road surface.

She broke the top of her hip in the fall and could not get up.

Eventually she saw a man walking down Leymoor Road and cried out for help.

He went over and asked at first if she had a mobile phone.

She thought he meant he would use it to call for help, but she had no phone with her.

The man simply picked up her handbag and ran off, knowing she had no phone to summon help and was in the middle of a dark, lonely road used by cars as a short cut to the Banks estate.

After he had gone the woman called out again and again for help until eventually three people living nearby heard her and went to her aid.

She was taken to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary, where X-rays confirmed a broken hip.

She had surgery on Wednesday and will be in hospital for at least a week.

She described her ordeal as she spoke exclusively to the Examiner from her hospital bed.

She said: “The road is in a pretty awful state. I was a few yards in when I just tripped up.

“I didn’t know what damage I’d done at the time, but I was in a lot of pain immediately and just couldn’t get up, no matter how hard I tried.

“I saw the man coming down Leymoor Road, shouted out for help and he came across. I told him what had happened and at first he asked if I’d got a phone. When I told him I hadn’t he grabbed my bag and ran off down Leymoor Road.

“I’ve lived in Golcar since the early 1970s and this has really shaken my faith in the area. I feel I don’t want to live there any more.”

The victim says the man is aged 30 or 40.

The victim’s sons believes the thief may have stolen cash from the bag before dumping it in a garden or bin further down Leymoor Road.

They want people in the area to check their bins, gardens and outhouses.

The bag is of black leather with a shoulder strap and two magnetic studs on the flap on the front.

It has a light brown piping around the edge and a thick black cotton lining with the make, TULA, printed inside.

It contained bank and credit cards which have now been stopped, along with a pair of red-framed round reading glasses in a red case.

The victim is diabetic and the bag contained a red insulin injection pen, a FreeStyle blood glucose meter, which looks at first sight like a small mobile phone, a white diabetes diary and a red diary.

It also contained glucose tablets and bus timetables.

The victim’s 28-year-old son said: “It’s just not what you’d expect in a village. Whoever stole my mum's handbag and then left her there must be desperate or have a total lack of conscience.”

He urged people to think back to Tuesday night to try to remember who they saw in the area.

He said: “Had the man been in a pub or club nearby, or even the Co-op on Town End which shuts at 10pm?”

Det Sgt Jim Carter, of Kirklees CID intelligence unit, said: “This was a heartless offence.

“She thought at first he was a good Samaritan, but he was exactly the opposite.’’

Contact Det Sgt Carter on 01484 436761 or Kirklees CID on 0845 6060606.