A widowed mobile homes campaigner has been left homeless after thieves stole her £30,000 static caravan by lifting it onto a lorry while she was out.
Sonia McColl, 70, had her home in Willand, Devon, broken into by crooks who lifted the fully-furnished 40ft mobile building off its base, swung it onto a low loader and drove off.
The founder of the Park Home Owners Justice Campaign had gone out when the incident happened.
The brazen raid happened between 6pm on Wednesday, November 22 and 6am on Thursday, November 23.
Ms McColl, who was made an OBE for her tireless campaigning to protect home owner rights, said she was devastated to discover her home had been stolen.
A widowed mobile homes campaigner has been left homeless after thieves stole her £30,000 static caravan by lifting it onto a lorry while she was out
She said said: ‘I’m devastated and shocked, I still am, I’m numb.
‘They’ve taken everything I’ve got. I can’t point the finger. I’m staying with some friends at the moment; I don’t know what I’m going to do.
‘If I was told I had to move out of here tomorrow I would have to throw myself at the feet of the council.’
Police are have now launched an appeal for information into the theft from the yard in Willand.
PC Marie Gorfin said: ‘The home would have to had to been taken by a specific low loader trailer that is capable of taking a caravan of this size and by someone that knew what they were doing.
‘This is a very high value and emotive crime as victim is now homeless and clearly distraught.
‘We are urging anyone with information to come forward to police.’
Sonia McColl (pictured with her late husband, Tony), 70, had her home in Willand, Devon, broken into by crooks who lifted the fully-furnished 40ft mobile building off its base, swung it onto a low loader and drove off
Ms McColl said she had been forced to sell her home due to death threats because she would not abandon the justice campaign for park home owners.
And she feels her campaigning might be why her own home was taken.
She said: ‘I ran a campaign that changed the law so that could not happen any more, and I’m currently doing one that is trying to stop them taking 10 per cent commission when people sell their homes.
‘Consequently I did have death threats, I used to live in a park home in Dorset and after losing my husband and dog I received a number of death threats telling me to abandon what I was doing.
‘My family convinced me to sell my home and move elsewhere so I put my home up for sale, sold it, and moved to another location just as the campaign was taking off. I moved to Devon.
‘I looked for another park home and found a used one in Nuneaton.
‘I went up there and saw it, then I bought it and arranged for transporters to bring it down here.
‘There were a lot of hiccups on the way, and it was transferred to a transporter that was unknown to me.
‘They said they couldn’t deliver it when they arrived in Devon because the drive wasn’t quite adequate, so they took it away to the yard in Cullompton.
‘It was there for the past two weeks while everything was prepared here.
Police are have now launched an appeal for information into the theft from the yard in Willand
Ms McColl said she had been forced to sell her home due to death threats because she would not abandon the justice campaign for park home owners
And she feels her campaigning might be why her own home was taken
‘Shortly before they were due to bring it back they pulled out of their contract which they had been paid for and said I would have to get another haulier to pick it up.
‘I found another haulier to help me, which would have been Saturday the 25th.
‘The hauliers were contacted on Monday or Tuesday to say the new hauliers were coming to collect it then apparently on the early hours on Thursday morning it disappeared from the yard.
‘The gates weren’t locked, it was just left on the yard, it had trucks on either side of it but there was nothing blocking it in either end.
Ms McColl, who was made an OBE in 2014 for her tireless campaigning to protect home owner rights, said she was devastated to discover her home had been stolen
‘I wasn’t informed by the yard at all. I found out via the hauliers who were going to pick it up, I was on the link road at the time and I felt like I was going to have a heart attack.’
Ms McColl said she has now been left homeless and broke – as it had not been insured.
She added: ‘I tried to insure it but I couldn’t. It was insured in transit, but it wasn’t insured when it was in the yard.
‘The haulier was paid to do a job and they didn’t complete that job, they sub contracted it to other people and pulled out the contract.
‘It was in their yard, they said it was secure but obviously it wasn’t.
‘I believe they had a duty of care and they are negligent, as far as I’m concerned.
‘At the end of the day they had my home and they were supposed to be delivering it to me but they pulled out of that contract.
‘Where do you go from there? I lost my home and everything. I paid everybody and I’ve got nothing.’
Ms McColl thanked the hundreds of people who have been kind and reported sightings of her home following the unusual raid.
She urged them to contact Devon and Cornwall police who are investigating.
Ms McColl said: ‘I know that we may never recover my home but let’s find the thieves who stole it.’