The afternoon of Wednesday, June 14, was just like any other until Jenny Thairs spotted a half-naked man getting into a car with two children.

As the drama unfolded outside Monks Orchard School in Woodside, Jenny bravely threw her lollipop stick into the road and screamed for help.

Jenny, 43, said: "I've been doing this job for 14 years. As soon as I saw him I knew something wasn't right."

Thanks to her actions the man was stopped from driving away and police were called.

Someone had stopped outside the primary school in The Glade to collect a child. They left the vehicle's engine running and two other children aged eight and 10 on the back seat while they went inside.

Parents collecting their children from the school had already seen a man, a 27-year-old from Bromley who was believed to be mentally ill, behaving strangely around the school grounds.

Jenny added: "First of all he did not have any shoes on, then he took his top off and he walked into the school grounds and was showing the children a snail.

"He came out and walked over to the car and got in it. I threw my lollipop stick to the ground and started screaming, That's not his car'. It stopped him from driving off and I called 999."

Police arrested the man but he managed to escape from officers, this time handcuffed and completely naked and attempted to get on a bus yards from the school gates.

"God knows how he managed to get all of his clothes off while he was handcuffed," added Jenny, a married mum-of-four who lives in Coleridge Road.

It is thought the man was subsequently sectioned and taken to the nearby Bethlehem Royal Hospital in Monks Orchard Road, which specialises in treating mental health problems.

Jenny was not nominated once but three times after her story appeared in the Croydon Guardian.

But for her it was all in a day's work. Jenny added: "I don't do my job for recognition, I just keep an eye on the kids as if they were my own. I don't go around bragging."

"People's attitudes have changed towards me since that day, they realise I am not just there to help them cross but that I do take notice of the children and what is going on.

"I make a point of saying hello to everyone as they cross; so that if any of the kids do get lost they are not afraid to see me. I also get cuddles every day."

Penny Bloss, one of the parents who nominated Jenny, said: "She is well known and liked for her happy and kind disposition, always ready to help anyone. She helped foil a possible abduction of two children outside the school by a man and I feel she deserves the Croydon Guardian's bravery award."