Family’s holiday from hell after yobs ransack chalet
A RUNCORN heart patient has accused Pontins of ruining what might be her last ever family holiday after children trashed her North Wales holiday chalet.
Joyce Reilly, 50, of Budworth Close, said the site management and security at Pontins in Prestatyn left her stranded outside for hours with no support following the discovery of the incident on Saturday, October 28.
To add insult to injury, she said staff accused her eldest son and husband of having ransacked the chalet – something that was later found to be false by a police review of CCTV coverage.
In addition, her toddler granddaughter Francesca Hurst, two, banged her head when she ran inside and slipped on washing up liquid that had been squirted about the floor, Mrs Reilly said.
She added that clothes had been strewn about and bleach poured on her heart medication.
Initial fears that burglars had broken prompted a call to the police, and Mrs Reilly said site management asked the family to stay outside a neighbouring chalet and wait for forensics to arrive and investigate their accommodation.
After waiting into the night without access to adequate clothing, particularly for the tot Francesca, or to food, the family called it quits just two days into their week-long holiday and headed back to Runcorn.
The holiday had been bought by Mrs Reilly’s son and carer Mark, 19, in the hope of storing up some special memories ahead of an upcoming operation, with pre-op scheduled to take place on November 14.
She said the site cleaner was helpful but senior staff left a lot to be desired, even suggesting they could resolve the issue by downgrading their accommodation.
She was also aggrieved that those responsible and their families are still on holiday while she has had to come home.
Following contact from the Weekly News, Pontins has said it has now apologised.
Mrs Reilly, who has three heart conditions, said that last year her doctor gave her 12 months to live, and as such the trip could be her last.
Speaking on Monday, Mrs Reilly said: “My youngest son wanted a family holiday with my other son (David Hurst) before this happens.
“I might be too poorly or not even make it after.
“We’ve got two cars, we went out in both cars and left.
“We came back at 12.15pm and it was my husband and eldest lad in the first car who got back to the chalet – we were stuck in traffic.
“He rang and said ‘we’ve been burgled’.
“I thought he was messing, he said no the chalet’s been broken into, everything’s trashed, the baby’s stuff’s trashed. I thought ‘my god this can’t be happening’.”
A Pontins Prestatyn spokesman said: “Our team were alerted to a potential case of theft and criminal damage to one of our customers’ chalets and immediately reported the matter to the police and took steps to preserve the scene for any investiga- tion they needed to carry out.
“At no point did we intend to suggest that Mrs Reilly or her family were responsible and if that was how our swift actions were interpreted, then we apologise.
“We are now in contact with Mrs Reilly and her family to try to resolve this.”
A North Wales Police spokeswoman said: “We were made aware at 1.12pm on October 29 of reports a chalet had been broken into.
“We have reviewed CCTV and are looking into the matter.”