Jag with a snag
DORIS Mousdale became a fugitive from the law after she unwittingly "stole" a £30,000 Jaguar in a car-hire blunder at Manchester Airport.
Police were called in and she was eventually "collared" the next day in Southampton after her husband had called to say: "You are in charge of a stolen vehicle."
The drama began when British-born Doris, who is in her mid-50s, arrived at Manchester Airport following a 24-hour flight from New Zealand, where she has lived for 18 years.
Doris, who runs a book website in Auckland, had pre-booked a Vauxhall Astra hire car with Alamo so she could get to a family wedding on the Isle of Wight.
She had been told the basic model she had wanted was not available and to expect an upgrade.
So when she was handed the keys to a blue S-type Jag - which when new is worth nearly £30,000 - outside the Alamo office in Terminal 2 she was surprised and delighted.
The only snag was that the car belonged to someone else. The error was partly down to a woman from holiday parking company Chauffeured Parking Services who, by coincidence, was standing outside the Alamo office.
Unaware
She simply gave the Jag to the wrong person without checking, said Doris.
When the real owner, a doctor from Stoke-on-Trent, turned up, police were called in and Doris became a "fugitive from the law".
Doris was unaware of the drama as she drove in unexpected opulence down the M6 towards Southampton.
She thought it was unusual the hire company had left hardly any petrol in the tank and that there were Polo mints and driving gloves in the glove compartment as well as heart-monitoring equipment in the back.
But, given the luxury of her Jag, with just 1,000 miles on the clock, she wasn't too concerned.
Meanwhile, police launched a hunt of global proportions. Officers called the travel agent in New Zealand through which the Astra had been booked, who eventually tracked down Doris's husband Peter to Singapore, where he was on business.
Peter, an academic at Auckland University, called his wife on her mobile while she was somewhere near Warwick, by this time with two sisters-in-law as passengers.
"It was so funny, although it wasn't funny at the time when my husband said I was in charge of a stolen vehicle. It was like Thelma and Louise," Doris told the M.E.N. after we tracked her down, staying with family for another wedding in Liverpool, where she was brought up.
Error
Doris had delivered the Jag to the Alamo office in Southampton the next day, where she was given a Vauxhall Zafira instead. The Jag has now been returned to its rightful owner.
Declining to be named, the Jag owner, said: "It was a simple error and I have absolutely no complaints. I have been treated very well."
Doris said: "I drive a Jaguar Sovereign back home and like all Jag drivers I'm very careful. I can assure him of that. It was a very nice drive.
"I must admit I thought it was strange they had left Polo mints and driving gloves in there and there were no Alamo contact numbers. The owner being a doctor would explain why there was ECG equipment in the back. I thought they were just sub-leasing someone's car. I wasn't worried about it or concerned about it at all."
She added: "It was about half-past five in the morning when I got off the plane and there was a woman in a red jacket with a clipboard outside the Alamo office. I didn't realise she wasn't from Alamo. I said, `Do you want to see my driving licence and voucher?' and she said, `No, we only do that for the young guys'.
"I actually said it was a wonderful service and that it was wonderful to have a Jag. It was the first flight in and the owner must have been on the same flight as me. She handed me the keys and I put my luggage in and I was off.
"They did a good job to find me because of the time differences."
A source at Manchester Airport told the M.E.N: "We couldn't believe it when we heard the story. She must have been well-impressed with the upgrade, if not the fuel-consumption."
No one at Chauffeured Parking Services was available for comment.
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