A 98-year-old woman had a ‘priceless’ bracelet stolen from her wrist as she sat on her walking frame.
Police are hunting for the valuable family heirloom, stolen in Manchester City Centre on Saturday afternoon, and have arrested three people in connection with the theft.
The pensioner was resting on her frame on Dale Street at around 3:30pm when two women approached her.
The pair distracted her with conversation while they slipped the golden bracelet off her wrist.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) said it was a ‘priceless family heirloom’ that the woman had inherited from her mother.
The force received reports of a similar incident on the same day, when two women approached a lady on Oxford Street – across the centre of town.
One tried to remove her rings while the other acted as a lookout, police said.
Officers have arrested three women aged 27, 33 and 35 following an initial investigation into the theft.
But the beloved bracelet is still missing, and police are seeking the public’s help in recovering it.
A photograph of the elegant golden and green piece has been released to aid the search.
GMP said: ‘Anyone who recognises it, has been sold the bracelet, or otherwise offered it, is urged to get in touch.’
Anyone with information can contact the police on 101, or use the live chat at gmp.police.uk, quoting crime reference number CRI/06A2/0000963/26.
Alternatively, information can be passed anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Meanwhile in Manchester, criminal gangs have been targeting Premiere League stars and their wives for luxury goods, which they transport to Ireland and swap for guns and drugs.
Career criminals linked to the feared Dublin-based ‘Gucci Gang’ target players living in Cheshire and Merseyside.
They have reportedly teamed up with Albanian crooks to lift valuables including watches worth up to £500,000 and designer jewellery.
Premier League aces such as Jack Grealish, Raheem Sterling, Alexander Isak and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain have all seen their houses burgled for hundreds of thousands of pounds in recent years.
And elsewhere, an eastern European ‘Bonnie & Clyde’ shoplifter who hit at least three jewellery shops was recently revealed as an international fraudster.
Legenda Rostas, 30, and an accomplice were responsible for a distraction burglary this summer that saw almost £7,000 of cash, silver and a Rolex watch that forced an independent jeweller to close down.
It has emerged that she previously stole more than £168,000 from US retailers before continuing her crime wave in Britain.
The Romanian national appeared at Swindon Crown Court from her prison cell earlier this month via video link from a prison cell – was jailed for just eight weeks and ordered to pay a victim surcharge of £154.
