Mum mugged by pregnant woman (From Stroud News and Journal)

Mum mugged by pregnant woman

A YOUNG mum and her three children are facing a bleak Christmas after being mugged in Stroud.

Emma Saker had been saving hard all year to buy presents for her family and on Thursday she withdrew £200 from Lloyds TSB cashpoint in the High Street to do her Christmas shopping.

But within minutes of walking into the Bewise shop opposite the bank her bag was snatched by a pregnant woman and an older woman accomplice who may have been the thief's mother.

Emma, 27, who works in Travelscope, Stonehouse, had her six-month old baby, Fabien with her and believes she had been watched withdrawing the money and then followed into the shop.

Not only was Emma shaken by the theft but she was also shocked that such a crime could be carried out by a woman who was about to become a mother herself.

"I am really annoyed that someone who is expecting a baby herself could do this to another mum," she said.

Emma's handbag had been hanging off Fabien's buggy. "I heard the younger woman call the other one 'mum,' she said.

"They snatched the bag and ran off." Emma had hoped to buy presents for her children children, baby Fabien, Dylan, five and Oscar, six.

She said: "I saved all year to buy the children bits and pieces. I really wanted to spoil them at Christmas. "Now we will be skint well into the New Year."

After the theft Emma was left stranded in town with no car keys, money or mobile phone. police are looking for a woman with short red straggly hair, scruffy clothes, short jeans and a jacket top and her accomplice who was about 40 with chin length greasy hair, a scruffy jacket and jeans.

Emma would like to thank the woman who came to her rescue, gave her money to make a call and accompanied her to the police station.

Anyone with information about Thursday's incident is asked to contact Stroud police on 0845 090 1234 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

For more Stroud stories, see this week's SNJ.