Mum says she 'felt violated' after discovering note on son's pram at Butlin's

Daily Record

2 days ago

A disabled mum went to the Skegness holiday park with her two children last month and was left furious when she discovered her four-year-old's pram had been stolen
A disabled mother was left feeling "utterly violated" after her son's pram was nicked during a family jaunt to Butlin's. The incident occurred at the Skegness holiday park last month while Sophie, 38, was with her two children.
Sophie alleges that the pushchair was pinched from the trolley area outside the swimming pool. Struggling to return to their flat with her 10 year old daughter and four year old son, Sophie reached out to Butlin's for assistance but claims she was advised to rent one for the remainder of their stay at a cost of £21.
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To add insult to injury, three days later, her pram was discovered with a post-it note attached stating: "Loaned for 5 min, sorry + thank you."
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The single mother shared her ordeal with Manchester Evening News, saying: "It was more the inconvenience of it. I'm disabled, so is my daughter. We came out of swimming carrying a heavy bag of wet clothes and had to phone Butlin's for someone to come and help me because I only made it half way back to the apartment.
"My daughter, was overly distressed by the situation. We had to hire another one. They wouldn't even look at the CCTV."
Sophie, from Derbyshire, suggested to the company that a ticket system should be implemented for collecting prams to prevent future thefts, but claims they "aren't interested", reported the Mirror.
"Three days after it went it was thrown over the swimming pool fence into the external pram park with a note saying it had been borrowed for five minutes," she recounted.
"A friend of mine found it and when we went to pick it up. We heard on the walkie talkies that another pram had just gone, it happens all the time."
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The mum expressed her discomfort upon retrieving the stroller, saying she "wasn't even that happy to have it back" after it had been in someone else's possession.
"I felt utterly violated," she explained. "My little boy's pram had been in someone else's apartment and they had been using it. I felt so scummy using it."
Sophie, who visited the holiday park in mid-May, took to a Butlin's Skegness Resort Facebook community page to expose the theft, which led to an uproar among parents who were appalled by the audacity of taking another's pram.
One parent decried the lack of security, stating, "Scum, it's about time Butlin's had CCTV or even security in buggy areas," while another was baffled by the act: "How on earth can someone actually think that's ok to do that,".
Another parent scrutinised the thief's motives, commenting, "The question is whoever has borrowed it, why have they gone away without a pram if they need one. Very entitled behaviour and I'd be fuming."
The Mirror has sought Butlins' response to the incident.