A 74-year-old St Anns woman en­gaged in a brief car chase with a ban­dit who snatched her hand­bag which even­tu­al­ly led to him throw­ing it back to her on Fri­day af­ter­noon.

Po­lice said the woman was re­vers­ing her car in­to her Fondes Aman­des Road at around 5:45 pm when a stranger opened the dri­ver's side door of the car and snatched her purse which con­tained her bank card, dri­ver's per­mit and $6 cash.

The ban­dit, po­lice said, got in a sil­ver Nis­san AD Wag­on which was parked near­by and drove off.

The woman how­ev­er fol­lowed the car in her own ve­hi­cle and no­ticed the ban­dit threw her bag on­to the road be­fore es­cap­ing.

The woman searched it and no­ticed that noth­ing was miss­ing.

Bel­mont Po­lice were called in and are con­tin­u­ing en­quiries.