A woman whose handbag was snatched from her car is appealing for thieves to have a heart and return her father’s much treasured Navy ID.

Sue Carter, 57, of Boreham Avenue, Custom House was putting away shopping in her car when the incident occurred in Freemasons Road on January 27. She told the Recorder that she just dropped her bag on the front passenger seat while stowing her groceries on the back seat.

She then noticed that a white van that she had seen earlier left the scene at speed, hitting the curb as it did do, as it went behind a row of shops.

When hse looked for her handbag, it had disappeared. It was then that she realised what had happened.

In addition to two mobile phones, bank cards and cash, the handbag also contained her father Thomas’s laminated Merchant Navy ID which features a photograph of him in his 20s and a thumb print on the reverse.

Sue said: “That’s what I’m most upset about because it is the only photo we have of him when he was young, in his 20s. I don’t care about the other things- the mobiles and the cards can be replaced but that ID can’t be.”

She has reported the theft to the police who are understood to be investigating it.

Sue is appealing for those who took her handbag to return the ID anonymously, maybe by posting it to a police station.