Grandfather reunited with car 3 years after leaving it in car park‎

An eighty-year-old man has been reunited with his car three years after he left it in a car park and then forgot where it was. Gerald Sanctuary left his Honda Civic in an NCP car park in May 2008, and was stunned to find that it started first time when he finally went to pick it up.

Mr Sanctuary suffers from dementia and had forgotten where he had parked his car, and it was never found despite his family searching the local area for it. A Good Samaritan then appeared in the form of car park attendant Charlene Lewis, who noticed that the car was very dirty and alerted the police. Mr Sanctuary's son, Nigel, was told of the car's location over Christmas and it was collected shortly afterwards by Nigel's sister Sophie.



Not only did it start first time, but it was still secure, despite a credit card having been left on display in the cabin. "It's a real testament to the security of NCP car parks that the car was secure and it's a real wonder that the car fired up straight away and then sat idling for some time," Nigel said. "We really owe our thanks to Charlene whose diligence has given us back the car and brought a smile to our faces.

"Dad kept saying that the car was near the chemists and we checked so many chemists and it wasn't there. But on Drovers Way there's a Boots, so he was right after all." An NCP spokeswoman said: "We're proud to hear how hard Charlene has worked to make sure that our procedures were followed. We believe this gentleman was a very loyal customer to NCP. We wish him well and are pleased that his car has been returned to him and his family." The car is now being serviced and Sophie intends to use it as a replacement for her own car.