Penny, who only wants her first name published, said she walked through the area and went to Woolworths on January 18 at about 2.50pm.

When she returned to the area less than five minutes later she found a hessian bag on the floor with papers sprawled everywhere.

Penny said the papers on the floor were Centrelink forms and when she opened up the bag she found fit packs, rollie pouches, a loaded syringe and what smelt like marijuana.

“It was definitely a dealer’s bag,” she said.

“No one would have all that stuff in their bag.”

Penny called the police to report the crime on 131 444 and spoke to a man who said they would send somebody out.

“I was standing in the area waiting for the cops to come with the bag about a metre from me when a man came out of nowhere and just grabbed the bag,” she said.

“He said, ‘bloody bastards stole my bag off my bike’, and I said, ‘nice bag of drugs you have there’ and he just walked up the lane.”

“I called back the cops and the man laughed and said ‘the dealer’s got his drugs back’.”

Penny said she couldn’t believe the response from the police and was completely against drugs.

“It’s disgusting, a young kid could have come through there and picked up the stuff,” she said.

“I expected the cops to come out.”

Mandurah acting senior sergeant Grant Berry said Penny’s call went through to the call centre and due to the large volume of calls sometimes the communication wasn’t as concise as it should be. “The job was listed as a 553 property collection by the call operator and there was no mention of drugs according to that report,” Sgt Berry said.

He said police prioritised their workload and had they known all the information they would have sent a car out as soon as possible.

“I want to assure Penny that Mandurah police would have been there had we known what was in the bag,” he said.