Delight as stolen films returned
PRICELESS HOME movies belonging to a Calderdale couple which were taken during a van hijacking have been recovered.
Much to the delight of owners Pamela and John Gillespie, the robber who stole the vehicle at knifepoint in Wigan in January saw no value in the box of 29 old VHS tapes sitting on the passenger seat and left them after abandoning in the vehicle.
Police have now kindly helped to complete the package’s interrupted journey by hand-delivering it to the shop in Ashton where they had been due to have been delivered originally for copying onto a USB stick.
The couple, who live in Shay Lane, Halifax, are planning to emigrate to Australia later in the spring.
This had prompted them to get all their heirloom recordings, some dating back to the 1980s and including wedding footage and film of their children growing up, transferred onto a memory stick and spotted that Wigan company Showtime film conversions had a special offer on.
So admin assistant Pamela, 55, had all the videos dispatched from her work to be delivered by DPD to Showtime on the morning of January 19. But when the driver arrived, he discovered that the premises didn’t open on a Wednesday so the tapes were put back in the van.
Instead of putting them in the secure back of the van he left them on the passenger seat with the intention of having another go at delivering later.
But at 11am, he was making another delivery in Ashton-inMakerfield
when he was threatened with a blade and the van was driven away.
For days it was not clear to the Gillespies what had happened to the van and its contents, after they received conflicting accounts from the police and DPD.
But after it was raised with police the van had in fact been found parked up and locked in Ashton, at 5pm on the same day as the robbery.
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