A GRANDMOTHER was robbed of her Christmas present money after she collapsed and lay unconscious on the ground.
Dawn Eratt came round on the road to see paramedics and a crowd gathered around her after feeling faint on the way home from a shopping trip. However, after she was helped inside her house, she discovered her purse containing about £100 in cash and several bank cards was missing from her handbag.
Dawn, 55, said: "The money was to spend on Christmas, and now it has gone. I was going to give my grandchildren little wallets of money each, so they could choose their own present, but now I've had to explain to them it won't be happening.
"I would have been able to cope if I had been mugged and someone had hit me to grab my purse.
"But to just take it when you can't fight back is truly horrible."
Dawn had been shopping in Hull city centre earlier this week when she decided to take a taxi home.
She asked the driver to take her to her house in Calvert Road but started to feel unwell on the journey home and the driver had to help her out of the car.
Dawn said: "I said 'You're going to have to help me, I feel really light headed'.
"He said he would, so I paid him, but when he gave me the change, my fingers were fumbling and I dropped the coins.
"I then remember picking up my handbag and I was stepping out onto the street. I had one foot out of the car door and the taxi driver was supporting my arm.
"I don't remember anything else, until I came round in the middle of the road."
Dawn says she awoke in the middle of the road with no idea how long she had lain unconscious.
An off-duty paramedic had seen her in the street and called an ambulance, waiting with her until it arrived while a crowd gathered around the woman.
Dawn said: "I'm so grateful the off-duty paramedic stopped to help me.
"He was the one who called for assistance – he was my saviour."
Dawn was taken into the back of the ambulance for a while, and then escorted home by the crew.
Dawn only realised her purse had been stolen when she was back in her home and looked inside her handbag.
Dawn says she is shocked someone could take her purse when she was so vulnerable.
"It isn't the best thing to happen, especially at Christmas – I've just been in shock since it happened," she said.
Humberside Police are investigating the theft and are appealing for help to find the culprit.
Chief Inspector Ed Cook, head of operations in Hull, said: "This has been a distressing experience for the lady involved, who may have been taken advantage of while unwell and vulnerable."
He said they had contacted the taxi firm and were searching CCTV footage from the area although they had yet to identify a suspect or potential witnesses.
"We will continue to offer support to the victim by working with her to monitor any bank account transactions which may reveal further lines of enquiry," said Chief Inspector Cook.
"In the meantime, we appeal to anyone with information about the incident to call us on the non-emergency number 101, quoting crime reference number 1948102."
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