An alleged thief on a mobility scooter stole a family's garden Christmas decorations - forcing a mum to chase after him in her festive pyjamas.

Charlotte Freeman-Laurence's Ring doorbell camera captured the moment a man dressed in black ran off with her huge Santa-themed postbox outside her home.

She spotted him and gave chase - running back to get in her car, after she found herself outpaced by the mobility scooter-riding miscreant.

NHS manager Charlotte, 42, from Bournemouth, Dorset, got it back - and posted the footage online in a bid to track down the man.

She suspected he might be behind the theft of an £150 Nutcracker ornament from her doorstep days earlier.

And after she passed over information to police, she claims officers retrieved and returned the Nutcracker too.

"Every person I've told the story has been in fits of laughter," said the mum-of-three."

"Me giving chase in my Christmas pyjamas."

"It's like a scene off a Benny Hill sketch or something."

When Charlotte and husband Joe Laurence lost the nutcracker they had left by their front door, on December 5, they put it down to "bad luck"."

They say a mysterious man on a mobility scooter had been spotted by a neighbour's camera entering their garden that morning.

Another decoration was nabbed just over a week later - the post box on December 14.

Charlotte said: "I was having a cup of tea and my doorbell footage activated and I saw the man carrying the letterbox."

"I legged it out the house."

"I chased him and he sped up which is laughable to think a mobility scooter could beat me."

"I saw him on the side of the road putting a bin bag over the letterbox."

"I said 'what are you doing?"

You've just nicked that'.

"He got back on his scooter and I gave chase."

"He had a head start on me and I think it was a souped-up scooter because it was quick."

Charlotte says she caught up with the man and retrieved the letterbox from his scooter.



She posted the footage on social media and was given information which she handed to police.

"They went there yesterday and the nutcracker has been returned to us," she said."

Charlotte added: "I think he was a petty thief with a love of Christmas."

Dorset Police has been approached for comment.