Charity van stolen on Christmas Eve found after someone in Southampton saw a tv piece on the theft and noticed it had been parked outside his house since Christmas day
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00:00I looked around for a minibus, found the first minibus, it was about £1500.
00:06So I went to the fella and I said, you know, I'm happy with the van, I don't know anything
00:11about vans but it looks good, I'll buy it.
00:13He said, well, you're Malcolm Dent from the Gosportarians, aren't you?
00:17I said, yes.
00:18He said, well, my wife has told me I've got to give it to you because of the work you
00:22do.
00:23I said, well, that is amazing, thank you ever so much.
00:27So I got given the first van and I kept that for a year until a group of aviation enthusiasts
00:34had taken the van to Gatwick and on the way back the van broke down and unfortunately
00:40that was the end of the van.
00:42So it was, well, now is a good time to say then, all right, no more van.
00:47But I thought, well, I'm already driving three lots of people every week, where are they
00:51going to go?
00:53So I then set up a fundraising to do this, £21,500 I raised to get this current vehicle.
01:01And that's where it stands at the moment until it got stolen Christmas day.
01:07And so I thought, well, it's such a notable van, it's so heavily sign-written that nobody
01:14in their right mind would take it just for a joyride.
01:16So it's been stolen to order.
01:18So my mind was first astonishment that it had disappeared because what happened was,
01:25as I say, it disappeared one o'clock on Christmas day morning.
01:29I went out to walk my dog at around seven o'clock, took the car out, didn't even notice
01:34the van was not there.
01:36When I came back down the road, that's when I thought, because you can see it's a big
01:39thing, the van's not there.
01:42And then it was like astonishment and then, well, who could have taken it?
01:46I've got the keys inside here.
01:50It's gone.
01:51And then it was depression.
01:52Well, so now I'm going to have to tell these groups, because I was convinced that somebody
01:56had stolen it to order, because that's what normally happens with those sort of vehicles.
02:00They don't get scrapped, especially that one.
02:02It's only done about 45,000 miles.
02:06And that was really it.
02:07So then I put the pieces on Facebook, you know, the thing's been stolen.
02:12And it's amazing how well the public respond to certain things.
02:17And because we only do good things, the responses tend to be really positive.
02:25And so that was it, finished.
02:27You know, I rang up, the group said, I'm ever so sorry, but I can make other arrangements
02:32for you, get somebody to cover.
02:35And that was it until the ITV news company rang me up and said, could we do a little
02:41piece?
02:43And I said, well, you can, but I don't really see it's been stolen to order.
02:46I'm not going to get it back.
02:48But OK, you wanted to come down and do it.
02:50So we did the piece.
02:52And I'm really pleased we did, because the next day I was out walking the dog as usual.
02:57And on my way back, the telephone rang and it was a man from Southampton.
03:00Have you lost a minibus?
03:02Yes.
03:03Well, I saw it on the news last night and it's sitting outside my house and it's been
03:07sat there since Christmas morning, about 3.30.
03:11That's when it arrived.
03:12Fabulous.
03:13So, but then I had to get somebody to run me to Southampton.
03:18So one of my disabled Santas, Paul Short, I rang him up.
03:21I said, can you take me?
03:22Yes, certainly I can.
03:23Took me up there.
03:25There was a policeman or a police car there when we got there.
03:30And so the policeman came up to the van.
03:33I gave him the key.
03:34He had put his gloves on, opened the door.
03:36I thought, oh, good fingerprints and things are going to be happening now.
03:38He turned the engine over.
03:39Yeah, it started.
03:41I said, OK, if you want to take it back, if it goes, then take it back.
03:44Oh, no fingerprints.
03:45And so I went and brought it back.
03:48Well, that's when I saw the damage that had been done, because although it drives, obviously
03:55the bits on the side of the wheel had been ripped off so they could get to the electrics.
04:01But as I say, the stupid bits was the door lights, the lights in the ceiling all been
04:05pulled down.
04:07And there's a great big sign, a council sign stuck in the middle of the gangway.
04:11So they'd obviously been on a revel and.
04:14But anyway, so that's how it ended up.
04:18And in fact, we do have a good end to the story, as well as having found the bus.
04:24There's a local company called Jacob's Coaches.
04:28And they run, I think, about 50 different vehicles.
04:32So the van from Jacob's Coaches rang me up and said, I'm pretty sure we can help you.
04:39Can I come down and look at the van?
04:42This was yesterday after the people had been from the news.
04:45And so I said, you know, come on down and have a look.
04:49So he came down and he looked at the damage and he said, yeah, I'm pretty well certain
04:53most of this I can cover from the spare bits we have for our fleet for free.
05:00And that's that's the beauty, you know, to me of what I do.
05:04It's not about rewards.
05:06I've had the news of giving us charity of the year or whatever it is.
05:10I've got a BEM.
05:12Those are all wonderful things, but it's the people who actually respond because they know
05:18that what you do is only for their good.
05:21It's not for self.
05:23Everything that we take goes back into the public.