Police have issued an alert over a gang which they say is preying on the generosity of elderly people in a bid to steal their credit cards.
Officers have warned Dales residents to be on their guard against the robbers who targeted a 72-year-old in Matlock.
Two men and a woman approached the pensioner in the Broughton shoe store on Crown Square last Wednesday and asked if she could giv
e them change.
While she was looking in her purse, one of the men took her credit card without her realising.
But a shop assistant challenged the man. He dropped the card and ran off with the other two would-be thieves.
A police spokeswoman said: "If it wasn't for the vigilance of one of the shop assistants we'd have had a theft."
Police believed the same gang had targeted an 81-year-old woman in a similar incident in Buxton an hour earlier.
The thieves asked this woman for change, before stealing her credit card.
Witnesses said the gang members were in their late 30s or early 40s, and all of Eastern European appearance.
One man was heavily-built, and five foot eight inches tall.
He wore a black tee-shirt and black trousers.
The other man thin with sharp features.
The woman was wearing a blue tee-shirt and blue jeans.
Anyone with any information should contact police on 0845 123 3333.
The full article contains 241 words and appears in Matlock Mercury newspaper.
