A woman was robbed of her takings in broad daylight as she sold fruit and veg from a lay-by and then dragged along the road by her assailants as she fought to keep her handbag.
“I don’t feel safe in my own home anymore - I’ve never had anything like this happen to me in the six years I’ve been running my stall,” she said.
Christine Wysoczanski was left with bruises down one side of her body when she was “dragged along the road” as she held onto a car after a man, who had asked for potatoes, stole her handbag from her van parked in the lay-by at Ring’s End near March on Saturday (January 5).
Since the robbery a fundraising page has been set up to help the victim and two men - one in his 40s and one in his 50s - who were arrested have since been released under investigation.
Christine said she’s been “very tearful”, had just two hours sleep in 48 hours, regularly feels nauseous and has had several panic attacks.
“I had packed up everything in the van when a car pulled up and two men got out,” said Christine, who sells fruit and veg each weekend to pay for her cat’s operations.
“They asked for two bags of potatoes which were in the back of the van. I heard my passenger door open and saw the older man grab my handbag.
“He shot into the car and I grabbed hold of his car and he dragged me along the road.
“He spun his car around and headed back towards me and I thought he was going to run me over.
“But what I hadn’t realised was that the young lad at the back of the van had ran down the lay-by and gone to pick the other guy up.
“I was lucky that two cars stopped on the opposite side of the road to help,” she added.
“Luckily they got the registration number of the car and called the police, who were marvellous.
“They were there within five minutes, followed me home, stayed with me for five hours and stopped my bank cards. I can’t fault them at all.”
When she was told that a stranger had set up a fundraising page for her, Christine – who returned to work as usual the next day “otherwise I wouldn’t have gone back at all” – said she felt overwhelmed by the support.
“When I saw cars just driving down the lay-by not stopping I was very nervous, but it turned to be people I know who were checking to see if I was alright.”
“I can’t believe the generosity; some of the people who have donated don’t even know me. I can’t understand everyone being so kind.
Christine, who moved to March with her husband two years ago having owned a farm in Whittlesey for 43 years, decided to start selling fruit and veg at weekends after somebody asked her, years ago, to sell a dozen bags of potatoes for them.
“We did ever so well and people were asking if we were going to be there regularly… but it was just to help a friend out at first.”
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