Bradford Lad: A Lesson In Low Life
Mike Coatesworth's daughter received a stern lesson in the need to be alert when she went shopping in a city centre.
The other day, with my wife Betty and daughter Lesley, I went to the city centre early in the day, thinking there would be fewer people around and it would be easier to look around the sales. However when we entered the covered market we found it packed with shoppers who had all turned out early, all obviously thinking they would beat the crowds.
While we were looking around one of the superstores Lesley received a heavy jolt as someone bumped into her. Faster than a leopard chasing its dinner, she grabbed hold of her handbag. The person who had bumped into her disappeared before she had chance to turn and look.
Lesley was shocked. When I asked if she was okay she showed me that the strap of her handbag had been sliced with a knife. Obviously she had been targeted by a bag snatcher, but she was too quick for the would-be thief.
I realised that Lesley had been lucky. Besides losing the bag she could have had her arm sliced open. I asked if she would like a drink.
‘A vodka and coke would be nice,’ she replied.
I chuckled. "I meant a cup of tea.''
We reported the incident to the security staff, realising that with a bag snatcher about others might not be as lucky as Lesley had been. They radioed up for reinforcements and an inensive search for the snatcher began.
We carried on shopping. I don't know if the would-be thief was caught. Lesley was annoyed that her bag had been damaged. It was a Christmas gift from her mother. Later we called in at a shop and I bought her another bag. She was grateful of course, but it didn't have the same significance as a bag given on Christmas Day.
This I'm afraid was not the end of the matter. Lesley, formerly a happy-go-lucky person, became cautions and suspicious, afraid to carry a handbag when she went into the city, fearful of becoming the victim of another thief. She carries nothing valuable in her handbag. She grips it tightly, or sometimes asks me to hold onto it.
That one incident has changed her life.
The only people I trust fully are my wife and children. I have always been wary. That probably comes from serving in the Army. I tried to instil in my children the need to be constantly alert. How sad that the need for security and keeping a sharp lookout that I learned as a soldier is now so necessary in civilian life.
