Joan from Yorkshire wrote: <Did you also see the news story about another 'Jean in Poole' in hospital with nasty bruises after being attacked by two burglars in her home. >
Unfortunately there seem to be two men going about the Poole/Bournemouth area forcing their way into the homes of (mainly single) elderly people and stealing, particularly, money. There have been eight or ten instances in the past two months that have been reported to the police. They may have been more unreported. A lot of pensioners take a payment book to the post office and draw their state pension in cash. In this area the money's delivered to the post office for collection by the majority of pensioners on a Thursday. There's quite a queue waiting outside for the post office to open on Thursday mornings. So any morons who want an easy target for a few pounds would hit pensioners in their homes here on a Thursday afternoon. It isn't a large amount, and for some it's all they have to live on. There's a big campaign to get pensioners to have their state pension paid straight into a bank account. Eventually all pensioners will have to have this. But as banks won't give a bank account to someone with a low income, they'll be special accounts available at the post office, and most will continue to go and take the cash out on the day they're used to. When I started to get mine, I was supposed to be given a choice of cash at the post office weekly or into my bank account four-weekly, but I wasn't. I'm quite happy with four-weekly into the bank though - with my other pensions it means I get four pay-days at different times each month. There are many Jean's in Poole, most of us aged 60 to 80, named when it was particularly popular. Possibly more than an average town because there's a high proportion of pensioners who've retired to any coastal town. This particular 80-year-old Jean lives a mile or so away from me, and she's the type who would fight back. She's fit for her age, intelligent and articulate, but quite tiny. She took real a chance fighting back with her husband's father's ceremonial sword. Apart from the liklihood of them inflicting serious injury or death on her because she fought, as she said, if she'd actually injured one of the men, she'd have been in court for assault or worse instead of the would-be burglar. Although she suffers from angina, fortunately she only sustained some bad bruising and the men ran off without getting anything. It's a pity that it takes publicity of this sort for an intense effort to be made to catch these cowards. Jean in Poole (but not this brave one) To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
