An Enniskillen woman has been left in shock after a quantity of money and her inhalers were stolen when her handbag was taken from her home whilst she was in it.

Jennifer Hutchinson was in the living room of her home in the Chanterhill area of Enniskillen on March 17 when someone broke in and stole her handbag at around 5pm.

Chloe Hutchinson lives with her mother but wasn’t at home when the burglary occurred. Speaking to The Impartial Reporter she said: “I rushed home and she was in a lot of shock, she couldn’t believe it had happened because it was so fast. She thought it was me because I’d be running in and out throughout the day so she was shouting out, ‘Chloe, what are you up to?’ because she could hear rummaging and she said they weren’t even quiet about it. She just thought it was me and then when I wasn’t answering her she was asking, ‘come on Chloe, what’s going on?’”

Chloe explained that at first her mother didn’t think anything was taken from the house: “She thought they had just pulled open the drawer of the phone table and then left. Then I said to her, ‘okay just check that your handbag’s there, your purse, anything valuable that you might have.’”

She continued: “We don’t have many valuables other than the money she has for the bills this month and I have a MacBook and that’s all we really have in the house that someone could make away with, so she ran upstairs and she said my MacBook was still there but her handbag was gone. All the money was gone, all the cash she had and her inhalers, everything that was in her bag, all her most valued possessions.”

Chloe rang the police on her way back to the house and noted that officers came out within half an hour of her call.

“They went through everything and then they did a door to door. They looked to see if they could see her handbag, they obviously took the money and that kind of stuff but they looked to see if they could find the handbag to see if they could get her inhalers back.

“But they couldn’t find anything anywhere.”

“The money is gone and it’s fine, we went to the bank and thankfully we do have a backup to get us through this month, we’ll be fine and she’s getting another inhaler but I was just thinking, there are a lot of pensioners around me,” shared Chloe, adding: “I would just be worried that it would happen again because they got away with it so easily and they got away with so much money that they probably think it’s like a free for all around here.”

Enquiries are continuing and Police would appeal to anyone who noticed anything suspicious in the area, including any suspicious vehicles to contact detectives on 101 quoting reference number 1091 17/03/20.

Alternatively, information can also be provided to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 which is 100 per cent anonymous and gives people the power to speak up and stop crime.

“I’m just so thankful that mummy didn’t come into contact with him, that she wasn’t fast enough. She said she would have just pulled it off him but it could have ended very badly,” Chloe told this newspaper.