Lisa Barclay, 50, took her Toyota Rav4 to be cleaned at Waves Car Wash in Colchester, Essex, while she did her weekly shop at Tesco
A mother-of-two has launched a desperate appeal to track down her car keys after they were driven away in another vehicle by a bungling valet worker.
Lisa Barclay, 50, took her Toyota Rav4 to be cleaned at Waves Car Wash in Colchester, Essex, while she did her weekly shop at Tesco.
But when she returned less than an hour later, staff were unable to find the keys to her vehicle – and later admitted they had ended up in someone else’s car.
Staff at the store believe they fell out of the valet worker’s pocket as he worked on another vehicle.
They checked CCTV and have narrowed it down to a blue Volkswagen registration number beginning with EX12 – but cannot say for sure.
Ms Barclay was left with no choice but to call her daughter up who drove 40 minutes with her spare car keys.
She said: ‘You just couldn’t make this story up.
‘I spoke to the franchise owner who advised it would take about 45 minutes and to leave the keys with him – he did look quite pressured, it was pretty busy.
‘I went off and did my shopping and came back 45 minutes later to my car, which I could see hadn’t moved or been washed.
‘He advised me that mine was next, went over to the hut and then looked confused and started speaking to the other workers.
When she returned less than an hour later, staff were unable to find the keys to her vehicle – and later admitted they had ended up in someone else’s car.
‘After a few minutes, I went and asked what the problem was. He asked me if I was sure I’d left my keys with him to which I replied yes, I gave them to you and you put them in your pocket.
‘He showed me some CCTV which had bunches of keys on the table and asked if any were mine – I pointed to mine.’
‘Even though he saw the CCTV with my keys, he was like ‘are you sure they are yours?’ and I said ‘I am sure I know what my keys look like, cheeky’.’
Ms Barclay said: ‘I didn’t pay for the car wash, they didn’t even wash the car that is what made it worse.
‘They haven’t even said ‘oh come back and we will give you a free car wash,’ I don’t think I would anyway.
Ms Barclay was left with no choice but to call her daughter up who drove 40 minutes with her spare car keys to the Toyota Rav4 (pictured)
‘I also went to work from home and my work token that gets me onto the work system is on my keys. They have offered no form of compensation or anything.
‘The franchise guy, whilst he was very apologetic now, was bloody useless on the day.’
Lisa is hoping to hear from anyone who was at the car wash around 2.30pm on Sunday who may have found her keys.
She added: ‘If anyone who was there from around 2.30pm could check in the cars, door pockets, sides of seats, I would be most grateful, especially as the key fob on there was given to me by late father and although replaceable holds huge sentimental value.’
A Waves Car Wash spokesman said: ‘We understand the customer has made a plea on Facebook and we are working with our franchisee and the customer to resolve this as quickly as possible.’