Grandmother loses $20k savings in bizarre trolley mix-up

A Melbourne grandmother is distraught after losing her life savings in a bizarre mix-up.

The 71-year-old had the cash stashed in her shopping trolley when it was taken by mistake.

"I haven't been eating, sleeping - I've been crying myself to sleep every night since it happened," Florence Sindik said.

On Saturday morning Ms Sindik walked 300 metres with a shopping trolley to her local post office to pay her monthly bills.

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When she turned around, the trolley was gone.

Inside it was just under $20,000 in cash she carried with her, worried about leaving it at home.

"I was concentrating on what I was doing, paying the bills and then when I finish, I turn around and it was gone, my trolley was gone," she said.

Half the money belonged to her ex-husband, who lives in a care facility. It's needed to pay his nursing bills.

"She called me and said it was the worst day of her life," Kathy Brown, her daughter, said.

If the money isn't returned, the pensioner is terrified she won't be able to support herself, as well has her ex-husband, who's money she is in charge of.

"It's not just all my life savings, it's someone else's as well," she said.

Ms Sindik is struggling to cope after what should have been an easy visit to the post office to pay her bills.

Now, it's turned into the moment she lost her life savings.