A GRANDMOTHER wishes to praise the good Samaritan who found her lost purse and handed it in to Portland police.

Sheila Sedgley, 74, of Southwell said she felt sick when she returned home from a shopping trip with her daughter and realised her purse had vanished.

The pensioner retraced her steps to the butchers and post office in Reforne to ask staff and search the streets but could not find it.

Mrs Sedgley said: “I think what happened is I went into the butchers and put two or three things in my handbag from the delicatessen, put my purse on top and it must have fallen out.

“When I got back home I couldn’t find it anywhere so I went back up and asked everybody I could but no one had seen it so I thought: ‘That’s the end of that’.

“There wasn’t a lot of money in it but it had Debenham’s vouchers that the British Legion had given my husband, who’s a disabled ex-serviceman, to get warm bedding.

“It also had my debit cards in there, which I cancelled straight away, and a photograph of my pretty little granddaughter Katie and various other bits and pieces.

“The purse itself was a gift from my daughter and it gives you a sick feeling inside to lose a belonging, something that’s personally yours that you value and to think somebody else has got it.

“But in my case I was very lucky.”

Three days after the purse was lost on the bank holiday weekend, Portland police contacted Mrs Sedgley and said her purse had been found tucked through the door handle of the Victoria Square station.

Mrs Sedgley added: “The policeman had found my name on my debit card and looked me up.

“Wasn’t I lucky? It just fell into the hands of somebody honest, even the loose change was still in there.

“I want to thank that person, they’re so honest.

“I don’t know who they are and I probably never will but I just want them to know that I’m grateful.” Sergeant Neil Wood, head of the Portland Safer Neighbourhood Team, said: “I’m really pleased that Dorset Police officers could help reunite Mrs Sedgley with her purse and extremely grateful to the good Samaritan who handed it in.

“It’s an example of the good community spirit we have on Portland and this community spirit is helping us to reduce crime and anti-social behaviour all the time.”