Mrs Hay was grateful after receiving her bag. (Representational Image)
After three decades, a woman has been reunited with a handbag stolen 30 years ago, discovered washed up in Aberdeen. The bag belonged to 81-year-old Audrey Hay and was taken from her former workplace in the city. It's suspected that the thief may have taken 200 pounds from the bag before discarding it into the River Don.
While walking with her parents at the River Don's mouth, eleven-year-old Maisie Coutts stumbled upon the old bag on Tuesday. Inside, she found various items.
Social media helped them track down Mrs Hay. In the bag, there were pens, coins, lipstick, earrings, a key and tablets.
Maisie told BBC Scotland News, "I was just walking around with my dog and my mum and my dad and then I pointed out, 'Oh, there's a handbag'.
"I said 'Mum do you want a new handbag?' Then I said maybe there's something in it.
"So then we decided to open it and we saw like a credit card and we saw the name so we were really confused, who is this, are they dead, are they not?
"We got home and saw the name Audrey and I did some research about her, I figured out a bit about her."
Her mother, Kim said, "When we noticed the dates on the cards were all 1993 I thought oh my goodness this has been in the water a long time.
"I posted on social media and eventually we did track down Audrey.
"Audrey confirmed it was her bag and that it was stolen 30 years ago."
Mrs Coutts added: "The power of social media is incredible."
Mrs Hay was grateful after receiving her bag. She said, "It was stolen, I was out of the office, and when I came back my bag under my desk had gone. I phoned the police and they took a statement."
Mrs Hay said the bag had 240 pounds.