A PENSIONER had hundreds of pounds taken from her when her purse was stolen in the town centre.

Jackie Moore, 66, went into Bracknell town to visit the shops in Princess Square, only to find that her purse, which contained £240 cash, debit cards, and photos of her late son, had been taken.

After the incident, Mrs Moore was able to get a taxi home from a familiar company that she frequently uses, before she contacted the town centre's security team.

"I phoned up to try and ask whether or not they could help, but the security team was very rude over the phone.

"When they answered, they just said 'yes?' leaving me to question whether or not I was onto the correct line.

"I asked who I was speaking with, and they just replied 'who do you want?'

"I explained my situation, and they were very vague and didn't help at all.

"I'm not bothered about the money, but I had pictures in there of my son, which I now can't get back."

Mrs Moore's son, Kelly, passed away three years ago, following a battle with cancer, and her husband is in a care home, suffering dementia.

"The police have said that there is a group of people going around doing it, slipping purses out of bags while nobody is looking."

Rob Morris, general manager at The Lexicon says: “We are sorry to hear that this lady did not feel she was dealt with appropriately. We will certainly look into the handling of this phone call further.

“While our security team do log incidents they do not have any investigative powers and therefore we would always recommend that incidents such as these are reported to the police. We have an excellent working relationship with Thames Valley Police and upon request from them would make any CCTV footage and information available to them to investigate any incident further.”