A teenage ‘have-a-go hero’ chased down and retrieved a woman’s stolen bag from a thief.
Richard Cain, 17, of Crosby, was doing his regular shift as a volunteer worker at Rice Lane City Farm when he heard shouting from two women at the back gate near Walton Prison and he saw a man running through the site with a bag under his arm.
Rather than freezing in shock, the youngster ran after the robber and his heroics forced the thief to drop the bag and flee out of his sight, allowing him to recover the stolen property and calm the fears of the two panic-stricken women.
Richard, who has been a volunteer worker at the farm for two years, did not think twice about his course of action and told JMU Journalism: “I was at the top of the field when we were checking the sheep because the lambs have just been put with them.
“I saw someone jump the back gate and run across one of our paths with the stolen bag. I heard some women shouting after him, so I just started running after him.
“I caught up to him just outside our farm office and then he dropped the bag before I could get hold of him. He saw me and ran but as I caught up to him, he must have thought he wasn’t going to get away so he dropped the bag.”
Richard, who originally started working at the farm as part of his secondary school work experience, added: “The women were at the back gate and so I brought them up here and said I got the bag back. They were really made up.
“I don’t know what went through my mind, it was just there and then and I thought I might be able to get the bag off him.”
The farm, which has been running since the late 1970s, was recently awarded the Big Green Leaf community prize last month, with the accolade also coming with a £1,000 funding boost.