AN Alton woman is warning people to be on their guard after someone tried to steal her purse from her handbag while she was shopping in a charity shop.

Browsing in the toy section at around 3.30pm on Monday, the shopper, who doesn’t wish to be named, became aware of someone close to her and, feeling for her bag, found a young woman about to take her purse.

Described as in her early 20s with dark brown hair tied back in a ponytail and wearing a white blouse and straight skirt, the woman had unzipped the handbag and was about to pull out the purse.

The shopper asked her what she was doing and the offender simply smiled and disappeared out of the shop.

The police are unable to follow up the incident because no crime took place, but the victim said she wanted to alert other shoppers to wary, especially since a reported rise in pickpocketing incidents in Alton in April.