LOUISE Whitehead thought she had seen the last of her stolen dress...until she saw it on our front page!

A thief stole it from her back garden and left underwear behind.

Louise, 23, could not believe it when she saw the same dress featured on the front page of the Lancashire Evening Telegraph.

Yvonne Kinlan, of Daisyfield, Blackburn, had found it on her own line in place of a new black evening dress stolen by the clothes-swapping thief.

Clerical officer Louise, of Finch Close, Brookhouse, Blackburn, said: "I couldn't believe it.

"I had only gone out for an hour and a half and came back to find the dress had been stolen from the line.

"There were a pair of tights and knickers lying on the floor. It seems someone is going around playing pranks by swapping clothes." A neighbour spotted a man, wearing a baseball cap, go in the back garden and then speed off in a car at around the time of the theft.

Louise, who lives with her parents, said another neighbour had found a black shirt thrown in her back garden at the same time.

Louise said she intended to contact Yvonne to ask for her dress back and had told police about the theft.

Inspector Peter Zsigmond, of Blackburn police, warned people to be on their guard for the washing thief.

He said: "When people put out washing it should be when they are at home. They should make sure gates are locked and washing is a safe distance from fences to make it difficult for people to reach over and take it."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.