A MUM is raising awareness after her purse was stolen during a distraction theft.

She was in McDonald’s in Cowdray Avenue in Colchester, at about 4.30pm on Thursday.

She said three men came into the fast food restaurant with pieces of paper, holding them up to customers as if they were begging.

The mum said: “One of them held a sheet up at me while another distracted me from the other side.

“The paper masked my handbag and he lifted my purse.

“McDonald’s have it all on CCTV and said it looked like they scouted round the restaurant first.

“Within half an hour they had made two purchases on my debit and credit cards at Ocean Supermarket in North Station Road.

“A kind lady used her phone to contact the police and kept and eye on my son while I tried to cancel my cards and I want to say a huge thank you.”

The purse is red with small white dots and contained a photograph of her son on a tricycle, a picture of her son’s father as a child and one of my son’s grandmother.

She said: “These photos are irreplaceable.”

Call police on 101 with information.