This is the shocking moment a brazen thief appears to steal a bride-to-be’s engagement ring after she dropped it at a Tesco petrol station.
CCTV footage shows a grey-haired man picking a small object up from the forecourt after the ring was accidentally dropped just minutes before.
Incredibly, the middle-aged motorist pretended he had not see the ring and even helped distraught Fiona Morgan, 33, look for it when she returned to the scene.
It was only when Miss Morgan and her fiance Michael Gray, 34, asked staff to review their CCTV that they saw the man picking up a shiny object from the ground in St Neots, Cambridgeshire.
The middle-aged man was caught on CCTV footage bending down and appeared to pick up the engagement ring Fiona Morgan had just dropped
It was only when they watched the CCTV they realised the man had picked up the ring when it was on the floor
The couple have reported the incident to police and are appealing for information about the man who is believed to have been driving an old, red Nissan Terrano.
Miss Morgan said: ‘I was inconsolable. I felt so angry that someone would do that to me, for someone to just barefaced lie about it.
‘When we drove back I just burst into tears. I left really stupid but I didn’t realise how much it meant to me until it was gone.
‘We were meant to be seeing friends but I just couldn’t talk to them.’
The clinical researcher had taken the ring off her finger while she was driving because it was rubbing against the gear stick.
She said: ‘I had it in my lap and it must have fallen out when I got out of the car.’
The couple returned to the petrol station and Miss Morgan added: ‘We pulled up and my partner ran over to the forecourt.
The man then drove off and Miss Morgan described herself as being ‘inconsolable’ afterwards
Police are now investigating the incident at the Tesco petrol station in St Neots, Cambridgeshire (pictured)
‘There was a guy filling up his car at the same pump. Michael spoke to him and he said, “no I haven’t seen anything” and even looked round himself.’
The couple, from Haverhill, Suffolk, had been together for six years when they went on holiday to Croatia last June.
She had no idea Michael, who runs his own car valeting business, was planning to propose and said it was ‘not expensive’ because they were going abroad.
The silver ring has a zirconia stone with smaller stones set into the band on either side.
Of the suspected thief, she said: ‘I would like to see them caught and face the consequences.’
A spokeswoman for Cambridgeshire police said: ‘We are investigating reports of a theft of an engagement ring in Barford Road, Eynesbury on January 21 at about 1.50pm.’
Police confirmed the car was believed to be a red Nissan Terrano but said they were unable to identify the number plate from the footage.