A disabled grandma has revealed how she 'couldn't help herself' when she tackled a teenage thief trying to steal parcels from the back of a Hermes delivery van in Heywood.
Carole Gladstone was walking near The Village Convenience Store - known locally as the Yellow Shop - on Middleton Road, on Friday when she spied the youths up to no good.
She said one of the gang knocked on the side of the van.
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When the driver went to investigate, other accomplices then grabbed parcels from the front seat of the vehicle.
"I saw what was going on and I couldn't help myself," said 48-year-old Carole, a mother of two and grandmother of one.
"The youths were hiding behind the shop after one of them banged on the van, the others grabbed the bag."
Carole, who suffers from fibromyalgia - a condition that causes widespread pain and extreme tiredness - went on: "I can't run, but I managed to stick out my foot and trip one of them up. He stumbled and as he did so I grabbed a few of the parcels back.
"He was wearing a gillet (a sleeveless jacket) and I managed to grab him by it, but it tore and he got away. I think he gashed his shin, and I hope it hurt him.
"I suppose, I shouldn't really have done it. I'm only 5fit 1ins and he was about 5fit 7ins, skinny with a skinhead haircut - about 15 or 16 years old. They ran away laughing, which is really infuriating. I hope the police can catch them."
She said people in Heywood are 'fed up to the back teeth' of teenagers running amok in the town.
"My partner lives in Swansea and I only see him at weekends," she said. "It's so bad he wants me to move away, but I don't want to leave my children who live locally."
Following the incident, Mudassar Naeem, who has owned The Village Convenience Store for 17 years, said the shop has been the target for three serious raids in the last six months.
Two occurred when a shop worker was threatened at knife-point and in the third, a man used a fake gun to threaten staff before demanding cash from the till.
Police have made arrests and a conviction for the first raid, but investigations into the others are still ongoing.
But Mudassar is at a loss to explain the current crime wave in Heywood.
"I've had the shop since 2004 and never had as many problems with robbery and theft as I have in the last 12 months," he said. "I would appeal to anyone who knows anything about these robberies to give information to the police."
Hermes declined to comment.
