Car-jack alert after Stalbridge woman's scare in Bagber
A STALBRIDGE woman fears she was nearly the victim of a car-jack crime when she stopped to help a motorist at the side of the road.
Rachel Horbury was returning from work on Sunday afternoon when she was flagged down on the A357 by a distraught woman standing in the middle of the road between Sturminster Newton and Babger.
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Rachel, who works at The Forum School in Shillingstone, thought something awful might have happened and pulled into the layby behind the woman's car.
She said: "I wound the window down thinking it was an emergency and the woman said, 'My car is broken. I am from the Ukraine and I need help'."
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But Rachel spotted three men sitting in the silver BMW, and then a fourth man jumped over the hedge and started running towards the car.
She continued: "At this point, the woman, who had long hair tied back and a gypsy style skirt on, thrust a ring in through my window and asked me to take her to the petrol station. She was begging me, repeatedly.
"I remember thinking, this is really dodgy. So I reversed back along the layby and pulled out and drove away."
Rachel said: "It's not what you're expecting on your way home from work. If I had let them get into my car who knows what might have happened.
"When I got home I called the police and they said they had heard of other similar incidents. I'd just like to warn other drivers to be vigilant."
Dorset Police said another incident at Todber was also reported on Sunday.
PC Julie Hankin of the Safer Neighbourhood Team in Sturminster Newton said: "Both times a member of the public was flagged down by an eastern European woman, once asking for a lift to a petrol station and the other offering to sell gold for cash.
"We have seen this many times in the past and it always ends with a request for cash in some way or another.
"The vehicles this weekend were described as either a silver Mercedes or BMW. It is possible the car had Romanian plates."
Anyone with information is asked to call Dorset Police on 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
Victoria McManus
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