Thieves stole a hospital bag, belonging to a pregnant woman due to give birth within the next few days.

Victoria Payne, an admin assistant, of Tenterfield Road, Maldon, packed her hospital bag into the family car last week.

She is due to give birth to a boy next Thursday, but said: “Realistically it could be any day from now.”

The 27-year-old said she had wanted to be ready, so prepared a bag of baby clothes, pyjamas and nappies.

She said: “We were only made aware of the theft because the bag had my medical notes in it and the thieves had dumped them on someone’s door step further down the street.

“There was a set of pyjamas in the case that my little girl wore when she was born and it would have been nice to have him in them too.”