Targeting the Thame area, the pair's second act of burglary proved more successful than their first failed attempt in East Street, which was reported in last week's Gazette.

Olive Shurrock, 74, of Needlemakers, had her handbag snatched by the thieves after she was in the kitchen making her dog's dinner last Thursday afternoon.

Mrs Shurrock says the Westie terrier will usually sit out on the front lawn and will alert her to anyone coming onto the property. However, in this instance her pet dashed inside for a few minutes after smelling her food.

In that limited space of time the father and son team were seen walking into her house, and less than a moment later, leaving again.
The pensioner, who didn't notice her handbag missing until later that afternoon, said: "My neighbours just thought I was having visitors so didn't think anything of it.

"I went to get something out of my handbag in the afternoon and it wasn't there, I thought I was going mad."

The police explained that her discarded handbag had been handed into Thame police station after someone had picked it up from the side of the road.

"It was only when the police rang later and asked if I was missing something that I said 'yes, my handbag'. But I wondered how on earth my handbag got down there? I still thought I was going mad,"

"In my bag was my purse, papers and my pill box, which they didn't take, but they took the money from my wallet. There was just the usual things in a woman's handbag, but to me it was my life."

The jigsaw was only later pieced together when Olive's neighbours informed her that they saw a pair, who appeared to look like a father and son, enter her house and leave again a few moments later.

Left feeling in fear of future trespassers, she said: "You get a feeling in your stomach that won't go away. It's terrible to think that someone has come into my home, not to mention I was still in the house even.

"It has left an indescribable sickness in my stomach that I can't get rid of."

Contact 0845 8505505 or contact crimestoppers anonymously on 0800555111.