Another woman had her handbag "swiped" while visiting a Dunedin cemetery yesterday.
Senior Sergeant Brian Benn, of Dunedin, said police had taken complaints from three women who had their handbags stolen from their vehicles when visiting grave sites at Dunedin's Andersons Bay Cemetery.
Someone was hiding near the cemetery, waited for the right moment and then "snuck up and swiped their handbag", Snr Sgt Benn said.
The spate of thefts began on Saturday when a Christchurch pensioner was tending her parents' grave at Dunedin's Andersons Bay Cemetery.
The victim was just a metre away from her vehicle when a man is believed to have crawled between gravesites to access an unlocked car door.