Victim of bag theft speaks out
A WOMAN who had £1,500 worth of property stolen from a Huddersfield supermarket has vowed never to shop there again.
Patricia Gilroy is angry with the reaction of staff after her handbag was taken from her trolley at Asda on Bradford Road.
She said: "They did very little about it so I'll be shopping at Tesco in Batley from now on."
Mrs Gilroy, 53, of Mirfield, has been going to Asda for 10 years with her 84-year-old mother, Doris Smithson.
While shopping there on February 15 she noticed her Prada bag containing her mobile phone and credit cards had been stolen.
Her mother had just enough money to buy her own shopping, but Mrs Gilroy had to go home empty-handed.
She quickly cancelled her credit cards on police advice.
But her mother, whose pension card was in the bag, was particularly upset.
Mrs Gilroy said: "She was absolutely heartbroken. She sat down and started crying. It was very distressing for her."
Later that day her husband returned to the shop to pay for Mrs Gilroy's shopping.
She said: "The security guard told him he had looked at the CCTV and seen a teenage girl taking my bag.
"He said she was known to them. So why was she allowed in?"
Mrs Gilroy, a management accountant in Liversedge, is also unhappy with the response from Asda's head office.
She said: "I called them to complain, but they kept passing me around. They were condescending and arrogant."
But an Asda spokesman denied that the security guard knew the person who stole Mrs Gilroy's bag.
He said: "The security guard didn't say the person was known to him.
"All he said was that the police may recognise someone from the tape.
"We're sorry that Mrs Gilroy's handbag was stolen and we try to do our very best to help in these situations."
