Wedgie ...

I still don't know the details but I was told by my case officer that Wedgie was taken by 3 youths who were known car theives. He was currently with forensics and I should have him back very soon. However, he had no detail on whether he was a wreck, although he could tell me that he had been in a police chase which resulted in a crash, so not very hopeful; however, someone would let me know soon when he would be released. The next morning I received a letter to say that the forensics had finished with it and that it was at Charlton Pound awaiting collection. The charge to have my car released was to be £105 and if I didn't collect it by midday 2 days following the date of the letter (Sunday), the cost of storage that I would incur would be £12 per day ... It was all a bit stark, unfeeling and upsetting - like it was my own fault that he'd been stolen ...

The insurance company undertook to arrange collection of the car - "is it driveable?" they asked. "I don't know - I keep asking and no-one can tell me". "Well that particular Pound don't take burnt out cars, so at least you know that much ..."

A week later, I finally got details of the garage who have the car and managed to speak to someone who had seen him. I still haven't had an official insurance engineer's assessment, but the lady I spoke to could tell me that he had been towed in and was therefore undrivable and that there was lots of damage to the front and the side plus they'd drilled bits out to get in and get it started. So, taking into account the age of the vehicle it was likley that the insurers would decide that it wasn't worth spending the money to put it right.

Whilst I was expecting this, I was really very sad. I've had Wedgie since 1993 (Wedgie because he's wedgewood blue), I've taxed, insured, serviced him and loved him. We've done lots of miles together (94,000 ...) and have been to lovely places - Jersey, France, Scotland, Durham, the Lake District (where he accomplished the Hard Knot pass with aplomb), Land's End, Lincolnshire, the Peaks - I could go on ... We hadn't been to Wales though - that was my next plan.

He is 17 years old and I was just planning on keeping him until he died a natural death, it seems terrible that his end should be being written off because he's too old to be worth investing the money in to put right. All because 3 lads wanted a bit of fun at mine and Wedgie's expense ...

So, now to work out what to do about another car ...