Handbag thieves foiled

ON Sunday November 16, I went for a meal at the Ocean Basket in Circular Drive with my husband and two family friends.

My handbag was on the floor between myself and my husband.

At 2.15pm Robert, one of the managers at the restaurant, came to our table and asked if our handbags are still with us. I told him my bag was gone.

He and another manager with three waiters rushed out of the restaurant after three men and two women, who had started running to a white car, registration number NJ... The manager and our waiter were hanging onto the side of the car while it sped away.

Our waiter fell, hurt her arm and her shoe was broken. The manager and waiters walked back to the restaurant while the car drove away.

I saw the manager had another woman's bag in his hands. A thousand things went through my mind: I would have to stop all my bank cards.

We had just come back from holiday the previous day and in my bag were my husband and my passports and ID books, three cellphones, our two wallets, cash, Musica vouchers and my new perfume worth R1400 I had used for the first time that morning. The manager opened the bag he had grabbed from the woman in the car, and what a surprise, my bag was inside the woman's bag.

I was lucky nothing was missing.

Afterwards the manager told us he got suspicious when he went to the five people and told them he wanted to move them to a bigger table, because they were sitting at a table for four people. They said no, they didn't want to move as they wanted to sit near a window.

When he went to take their order they said they are not ready to order. Suddenly they got up and said they are leaving because they wanted to order steak.

A big thank you to the staff who helped to recover my bag, the managers Robert and Alexa, our waiter, Anita, and two other waiters, Lunga and Thabo.

Joan Koen, Chelsea, Port Elizabeth