Last updated at 17:38, Thursday, 27 December 2012

A BARROW pensioner has been left in disbelief after his treasured campervan was stolen and crashed on Christmas Day.

The Toyota Hiace van, which belongs to 72-year-old Joe Shannon, was taken while he was paying a Christmas visit to his son in Vulcan Road, Barrow.
Mr Shannon said he had driven the van there at about 8pm and was sitting inside chatting when he got a phone call from a friend telling him his van had crashed and overturned in
Michaelson Road.
“I said to him ‘No, it’s outside, you are mistaken,” said Mr Shannon, of
Harrogate Street. “I said ‘You are kidding me, I have only just got out of it’.”
However, when he looked out of the window it became all too clear that the van, which he paid £7,000 for about two years ago, had indeed been taken.
Not only that, but it had been driven into some railings near the former Canteen Media Arts Centre and overturned at around 8.15pm.
The man who was driving the campervan was helped out of the overturned vehicle by passers-by but then made off towards the town centre before police arrived on the scene.
Mr Shannon, who has lived in Barrow since 1964 and formerly worked as a builder and in the shipyard, said he still could not believe the van had been stolen.
“I can’t understand how it could have been turned over like that,” said Mr Shannon, who has six children and two grandchildren.
“To tell you the truth, I still can’t believe it has gone.
“It was going to last me out, that was what my intention was, just to have it for the enjoyment of going out.
“I used to like going out into the Lakes and up the Coast Road and over to
Blackpool and Morecambe.”
Today(27) Mr Shannon said he was
planning to go to Ulverston, where the vehicle is being kept in a compound by police, and find out whether it can be repaired or if it is an insurance write-off.
Anyone who has any information about the theft is asked to contact police on 101.

First published at 16:34, Thursday, 27 December 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk