Catch the thief!

The cheek of it! M. is parking her car in a parking lot, her baby and toddler in the back. A man appears in front of her ostensibly to guide her into the space. And hey presto, while she is backing, he opens the passenger door, snatches her handbag and jumps into a waiting car and it shoots off.

With formidable presence of mind, she memorizes the car's registration number and immediately phones the police and gives them the information. The police arrive within 2 minutes which is commendable. Less commendable is that, 24 hours later, the police said that they couldn't really do anything because the incident had not been captured on CCTV. However, when a more senior policeman was telephoned, the story was: "Oh yes, we know the car. It is stolen and we will pick the culprits up sooner or later."

But for goodness sake, if one spoon-feeds the registration number to the police within seconds of the crime being committed and also gives them the exact location, why are they incapable to picking up the gang (and it was a gang) immediately?

Perhaps the police would like victims to ascertain the attacker's address and when they are going to be at home, before they act!