Mum’s horror as holidaymaker steals son’s pram at Butlin’s – then leaves a note

A mum has shared her distress after feeling ‘scummy’ following an incident at Butlin’s during a family holiday. Sophie, who visited the Skegness site last month with her two children and a larger group of adults and kids, claims her son’s stroller was stolen from the trolley area outside the swimming pool.

Faced with the challenge of returning to their apartment with her 10 year old daughter and four year old son, she reached out to Butlin’s for assistance but alleges she was advised to hire one for the remainder of her stay, costing £21. Three days later, her trolley was discovered with a post-it note attached reading ‘loaned for 5 min, sorry + thank you’.

“The inconvenience of it all,” said Sophie, 38, “I’m disabled, as is my daughter. We emerged from swimming carrying a heavy bag of wet clothes and had to ring Butlin’s for someone to come and assist me because I only made it half way back to the flat.”, reports the Manchester Evening News.

“My daughter was extremely upset by the situation. We were forced to hire another one. They wouldn’t even review the CCTV.” Single mum Sophie, hailing from Derbyshire, suggested implementing a ticket system for collecting prams to prevent any being taken, but alleges the company ‘aren’t interested’.

“Three days after it disappeared, it was tossed over the swimming pool fence into the external pram park with a note saying it had been borrowed for five minutes,” she added. “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.”

The mum said she ‘wasn’t even that happy to have it back’ after someone else had been using it. “I felt utterly violated,” she said. “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 stayed at the holiday park in mid May, publicised the affair on a Butlin’s Skegness Resort Facebook page, where astounded parents exchanged their bewilderment at someone pilfering another family’s pushchair.

“Scum, it’s about time Butlin’s had CCTV or even security in buggy areas,” one parent exclaimed. “How on earth can someone actually think that’s ok to do that,” questioned another, while a companion marveled: “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.” Butlin’s representatives refused to comment on the occurrence.