Great-grandmother teaches thief a lesson

London: Stealing the old woman's purse should have been no trouble, at least that's what one young thug thought as he watched 77-year-old Marion Walker in the supermarket car park.

But he picked the wrong pensioner to mess with. Great-grandmother Walker grabbed the thief by the lapels and pinned him up against a wall.

She then forced him to hand back the purse. Indeed, the mugger was so intimidated that he ran away the minute that Walker let him go.

On Thursday, as police praised mother-of-two Walker for her bravery, she told how she'd been shopping with her 90-year-old sister Doris Smith when two men approached her in the supermarket car park.

The retired medical secretary said they attempted to distract her while one reached for her purse, which she had put in the back of her car.

But when she saw the man crouching down to grab the purse she just "snapped" and charged at him.

Walker, who suffers from osteoarthritis, said she just followed her instincts when the thief struck.

"I saw red when I saw this man stealing my purse," she added. "I charged at him and pushed him against the wall, he didn't offer any resistance. Before I knew it I had him by the lapels and was screaming at him.

"He kept saying everything is all right, but I was so angry I told him it's not all right, and wanted to know if he had taken anything else. He gave me back my purse and I let him go and he ran away."

A spokesman for West Mercia Police praised Walker's "brave actions".

He said that over the past six months, dozens of elderly shoppers in Worcestershire have been robbed after leaving supermarkets. Many have been the victim of distraction crimes, with the thugs often asking for their victims' help with directions.