Bag Snatching at a Funeral – Planned or Opportunistic?

On Thursday, 1st February 2024, an ITC reader attended a funeral at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church in North Sydney.

She arrived early, around 9:15 am, as the service was scheduled to begin at 10 am, and she was assisting the family with both the setup and pack-up procedures.

The funeral service concluded at approximately 11:30 am. After the attendees left the church, she gathered various items to transport them to the wake to be held in Longueville.

She inadvertently left her handbag on a side table inside the church, approximately one to two meters away from where she was standing, speaking to some other mourners.  At around 11:45 am, she turned to retrieve her handbag and discovered it was missing.

Upon realising her handbag was not where she left it, she asked others if they had seen anything.  She had left her phone in the handbag, and her son and friends dialled her phone in the hope of locating her handbag. Simultaneously, she conducted a thorough search within the church premises, including checking the office to see if the bag had been handed in. It soon became apparent that the handbag had been stolen.

Utilising her son’s ‘Find My Friends app’, she started tracking her phone and noticed the person who had her handbag was moving towards Falcon St North Sydney.

A group started walking towards the phone’s location when they noticed the phone had stopped moving.  The group asked at nearby cafes, knocked on doors, and searched bushes. However, no one could find the handbag.

Her son noticed a post box and took a photograph inside the post box.  The photo showed that her handbag had been dumped inside the post box.

The North Sydney Police were contacted, and they arranged for Australia Post to expedite the opening of the post box.

A nearby cafe provided CCTV footage showing a man, approximately in his mid-50s and dressed in a suit, dropping the handbag into the post box.

At approximately 1:20 pm, Australia Post arrived, opened the post box, and returned her handbag. Unfortunately, around $80.00 in cash had been removed, as well as all credit cards.  The person did not take her phone or any other items.

The CCTV Video is below:

North Sydney Parish

ITC contacted the North Sydney Parish and asked if anyone else had reported their handbag/belongings being stolen from the church.

Father Richard Leonard SJ, the parish priest, told ITC:

“That is appalling.

We will certainly warn our congregations in the future.

I have never heard about a crime like this before in our parish.

It is shocking this has happened at all, and especially at a funeral in our church.”

ITC spoke to the media representative at the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney, who advised that he had heard of one other incident where a bag was stolen at a funeral.

A spokesperson from North Shore Police Area Command said they were not aware of any thefts of this nature.

Bag snatching, or any form of theft, especially at a funeral, is a pretty low act.

However, like any form of crime, it’s not entirely unheard of. Opportunistic thieves may take advantage of distracted mourners or crowded situations to snatch items.  Older parishioners are more likely to carry cash and could be easier targets.

No matter where you are in public, you should remain vigilant and take precautions to safeguard your belongings.