A Clapham police sergeant located and returned a woman's lost purse using the power of social media.

Sergeant Jack Rowlands reunited a woman with her purse purely through Twitter last night after launching an appeal on the social network.

A purse found in Clapham High Street was handed to Sgt Rowlands at 7pm last night (Wednesday, January 15).

After searching the purse, Sgt Rowlands took to Twitter to locate the owner Ashton Forde, a singer/songwriter from London, who was not only on Twitter but was still in the area.

Ms Forde later tweeted: "Wooo! What a lovely sense of community I now have! Thank youuuuuu (sic)".

Sgt Rowlands, who uses Twitter as part of his daily duties, tweeted the owner and made arrangements to reunite her with the lost property just 20 minutes after it was handed in.

He said: "Two months ago I didn’t see the point of Twitter, but I have been overwhelmed by what it can do."

A spokesman for the Met Police said: "Last year, we launched a pilot scheme for neighbourhood sergeants from local policing teams to use Twitter to engage with their immediate communities.

"Feedback from the public has been extremely positive and the Sergeants involved have found it extremely valuable as a ‘hyper-local’ communication tool."

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