Alert cops nab handbag thief

A 23-year-old man is in custody after police officers spotted him walking down a street in Limassol holding a woman’s handbag which turned out to have been stolen.

Limassol police said that a police patrol had noticed a man walking on Paphos street at around 2.50 am. Officers’ curiosity was piqued by the fact that he was holding a woman’s handbag and they asked him to stop. He dropped the bag and fled but was apprehended a little distance away when he lost his balance and fell.

Questioned, he admitted to stealing the bag. In it, police officers found €65 in cash, two mobile phones and the owner’s ID. She was tracked down and it was established that her home had been burgled a little earlier, and that the bag and other property was missing.

The man appeared before Limassol district court on Tuesday which remanded him in custody for six days.