Romford charity bag thieves caught on CCTV

A ROMFORD woman will be reunited with the clothes she left outside her house for a charity collection after she used her CCTV system to snare the thieves.

Lorraine Moss, 42, of Carlisle Road, packed two bags of old clothes she wanted to give away to Clothes Aid, which collects used garments to raise funds for various charities, put them out the day before a collection was due.

Mrs Moss said: “I got a leaflet through my door about the collection, I was going to take it to a charity shop but I thought I didn’t mind giving it to them.”

She put the clothes in black bin bags with labels on them clearly stating that they were for a charity collection.

Three hours after she left them she noticed that they had disappeared from outside her house.

The bank clerk said: “I’ve had CCTV for a few years, and I looked through the footage after and noticed the bags were gone. To my horror, I saw two people take the bags, and while they were carrying the bags away they were laughing.”

Lorraine took the footage to the police, who arrested and cautioned a man and a woman over the theft. The bags were recovered with their contents in tact and the mother-of-two will now be able to donate them to the charity.

“At least they’ve got the bags back, it’s a relief, next time I think I’ll put them out in the morning instead of at night though,” she said.