06/02/2026
A local woman has shared a deeply upsetting experience that has left her shaken and disillusioned. It unfolded in broad daylight at a bus stop outside Stockland in Wendouree.
She was exhausted, pregnant, juggling a toddler and distracted enough to leave her bag behind for a few minutes. When she realised and rushed back, no more than ten minutes later, she found an older man already rifling through it.
He told her he was only searching for identification so he could return the bag. At first, everything appeared to be there, and she felt a brief sense of relief, but that feeling didn’t last long.
Once back at her car, she checked more carefully and realised a small container holding $250, every dollar she had, was missing.
She returned to the bus stop and confronted the man. Inside his bag, she noticed $250 in cash tucked underneath his belongings. When she asked him about it, he insisted it was money he had just withdrawn for rent.
Rather than accuse him, she appealed to him, explaining she was on a low income, supporting a family and that the money meant everything to her, asking him to do the right thing.
She hesitated to take the cash herself, worried about the possibility she was wrong and that she might be taking rent money from a pensioner, and instead left to double-check with the shopping centre, still hoping she had somehow misplaced it.
It was only then, when she checked a nearby bin with her phone camera, that she saw the container sitting inside, emptied and discarded. And at that moment, the reality of what had happened sank in. By the time she returned, the man was gone.
What has stayed with her most is not just the loss of the money, but the fact that someone could watch a visibly distressed, pregnant woman cry and plead, and still lie to her face without remorse.
She described the incident as deeply disappointing, saying it left her questioning how someone could show such cruelty in a moment of obvious vulnerability.
The post – since closed off to comments by the group admin –resonated strongly with locals, many of whom say it is a sobering reminder of how quickly trust can be exploited, even in public and in plain sight.
