A pensioner was left housebound after thieves stole her keys – and later her car – as she helped her 90-year-old husband who suffers from Alzheimer’s.

Irene Vidler, of Shipley , said she was devastated after the thieves stole her keys from the ignition of her Toyota Yaris car within just two minutes of her going to collect her husband Jim in his wheelchair after spending the day at Northcliffe Allotments.

She managed to drive home, using a spare set of keys, but the following day she discovered the car had been stolen from behind her house in Norwood Terrace.

Mrs Vidler said: “I have enough stress and strain coping with an elderly, infirm husband, suffering from dementia without having to cope with something like this.

"I need a car as I am unable to leave my husband alone by himself and have to take him everywhere with me.”

Her ordeal began on Monday following a day working at her allotment. She had packed up the car at about 5pm and turned her back two minutes – leaving the keys in the ignition – to put Mr Vidler into the car with his wheelchair.

She said she had seen three youths, aged about 15 or 16, hanging around, and believes they stole the keys.

Mrs Vidler went home and unloaded her car of anything which could be stolen and a neighbour disconnected the battery so nobody could drive it away.

Just after 10pm that night, a neighbour called to tell her he had seen youths fitting the same description trying to get into her car.

He called the police but the would-be thieves, who ran off. The next day, Mrs Vidler made an appointment to have her car key re-programmed and had her battery re-connected.

But when she went out at about 1.45pm, she found it had been stolen from nearby Norwood Place.

Mrs Vidler said yesterday that police had found her car dumped in Pool -in-Wharfedale.

A police spokesman said: “It is possible that passers-by will have noticed this and we would call on anyone who saw any suspicious behaviour in the area at this time to come forward.”

Anyone with any information should contact police on 101.