PCSO Steve Hollands carried out some detective work of his own to find the owner of a lost purse in Southend.

On Saturday, a kind member of the public handed in a lost purse to Southend police station.

The member of the public wasn’t able to track down the owner of the purse as it didn’t have many details inside of it.

Steve stored the purse away securely and used an online system to try to locate the owner.

He found someone by the same name and visited the address to see if she was in.

The owner was overjoyed when Steve told her that her purse had been found.

Both the owner and her husband thanked Steve profusely. She informed Steve that there were a number of gift cards in it which she received as Christmas presents, along with a house key.

PCSO Steve Hollands, from Southend Community Policing Team, said: “It was lovely that a member of the public was kind enough to hand the purse in.

"It was a slight challenge due to limited information but I was more than happy to do the work to track down the owner.

“Her happy smile simply made my day. Helping people is what we do.”