A mum of triplets has spoken of her dismay at being left holding the babies after her pushchair was stolen.

Barking and Dagenham Post: The Smith tripletsThe Smith triplets (Image: Archant)

Kashina Smith, 25, was shocked to find that brazen thieves stole the buggy, worth about £600, from her friend’s porch during a playdate last week.

And it appears that the pushchair might have been snatched within the space of just 45 minutes.

Kashina, mum to 13-month olds Chaya, Janae and Gabrielle, said: “I came outside and it was gone.

“I thought to myself ‘who steals a pushchair’ and ‘how am I going to get anywhere when they can only just about walk?’”

She had left the large black ABC triple pushchair, which has two seats on the bottom and one on top, outside her friend’s house in Hatfield Road, Dagenham, last Tuesday at about 12.45pm.

On realising that it had been taken, her friend spoke to the ice cream man, who parks nearby, and was told that he hadn’t noticed the buggy when he had arrived just 45 minutes later.

Unable to carry her brood, Kashina was only able to get home after her friend collected the triplets’ car seats from her home in Cotesmore Gardens, Dagenham, and then picked them all up.

She now faces shelling out another £600 on a second pushchair.

Unfortunately there is no CCTV covering the area where the pushchair were taken and no witnesses have yet come forward to help with police enquiries.

“I just don’t know what anyone wants with a triple pushchair - it’s huge,” Kashina said. “I’ve now got to find the money from somewhere because I can’t really go anywhere without it.

“It has definitely made me aware that I need to be more careful but it’s one of those things and there’s not really much that you can do about it.”

A spokeswoman from the Met confirmed that the pushchair theft had been reported.