Woman dragged across a Northampton car park by a car as she tried to stop handbag thief

The woman, who did not wish to be named because of fear of reprisals from the men, was about to have a cigarette outside the store in St Peter's Way at about 10.30am yesterday when she saw a man running into the car park.

The 5ft 6ins man was carrying six Michael Kors handbags and the woman gave chase.

"Working for a retail outlet myself, you learn to guess when things look a bit iffy," she said, speaking about seeing the man run past. "I sprinted after him but he jumped into a silver car."

The woman's mother, who was shopping in town with her, then stood in front of the getaway car being driven by another man.

But the driver kept edging forwards, while the shoplifter shouted 'go,go, go'.

It was at this point the brave woman reached into the car to try and take back the handbags.,

But instead of relinquishing the stolen goods, the shoplifter held onto the bag - and the woman's arm.

She said: "I let go of the bags but the man just kept hold of my arm. Even when they started driving off, he wouldn't let go.

"I ended up going flying face first"

The woman was dragged between 6 and 10ft across the car park and has been left with scrapes and bruises.

"At the time I was just going on impulse," she said, reflecting on the incident. "I'm fed-up of reading how people stand round and do nothing when something like this happens."

The shoplifter was described as being 5ft 6ins inches tall with short, dark hair. He spoke with a foreign accent, the woman said.

Northamptonshire Police has asked for any witnesses to the incident to call police on 101.

Meanwhile, the woman, a Tesco worker, is hoping the men are caught as she could have been seriously injured.

"It's one thing stealing a bag, it's another thing trying to run someone over and drag them by car."