WHENEVER I begin feeling optimistic again about mankind, some lowlife piece of scum inevitably crashes into view to put me right about the human race.

I was feeling oddly upbeat on Tuesday until I read the story in the Bucks Free Press Midweek edition about the burglar who stole a 94-year-old woman’s pension money in Penn. Apparently, he pretended to be a window cleaner.

If this was the only case of its kind, then perhaps we could dismiss it as an aberration. But sadly, no, the plankton that inhabits the lower reaches of the underworld sees old folk as easy prey.

Only last month, we read of a 98-year-old woman being pushed to the ground and having her bag snatched from her in broad daylight in Chalfont St Peter.

Clearly, all crimes are disgraceful, but the ones against old people are possibly the most vile of them all. We should cherish our old ‘uns, but instead they are picked upon for their apparent frailty. Goodness knows what this sort of attack does to their confidence.

My solution would be to increase the levels of punishment for this type of crime which is more than just a mugging or a robbery. It should be seen as grievous bodily harm because of the victim’s vulnerability.

And offenders should not only be named and shamed, but should be made to walk the streets bearing a placard with the words: “I pick on old folk.”

You think I’m kidding? No – until this crime is seen by the criminals as being strictly off-limits, then it will never stop, and old people will continue being victims forever and a day.