Cheltenham car mystery: Couple find lost Ford Fiesta
- Published
The car was found in a car park in Cheltenham, 900m from the hospital
An elderly couple who forgot where they parked their car have been reunited with the vehicle five days later.
Emmanuel Elliott, 81, and partner Hilda Farmer, 79, left it somewhere near Cheltenham General Hospital on Friday, but could not remember where.
It was found on Tuesday in a car park about 900m from the hospital and had been ticketed three times by wardens.
Mr Elliott said it was "marvellous" to have the vehicle back.
Ms Farmer thought she had left it on a street "within a mile and half" of the hospital with "nice houses on one side" and "greenery on the other".
But after it was discovered in St George's Road car park, she said she must have "dreamt it when I realised I couldn't find the car".
"It's been quite a five days," Mr Elliott added. "I hope I can remember how to drive."
The car, which had been missing for five days, was ticketed three times by wardens
He said Ms Farmer's granddaughter had located the car with help from her social media followers after the story was featured online.
Several people contacted the BBC to say they had also seen it.
Cheltenham Borough Council said the car had been given a number of tickets "as any vehicle without a valid ticket would".
A spokesman said they would not immediately cancel the charges but pointed the couple to the authority's appeals process.
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''We will of course look on this as sympathetically as we can in the circumstances that have been highlighted," he said.
Ms Farmer had dropped her partner off for a hospital appointment last Friday afternoon, and drove off to find somewhere to park.
But after the appointment the pair could not find their vehicle.
Family and friends of the couple, from Gloucester, had spent four days searching for the car with no success.
On Tuesday they offered a reward of £100 to anyone who located it.
- Published22 May 2018
