SUMNER MAN WALKS PAK'NSAVE TROLLEY HOME FROM FERRYMEAD, HAILED AS HERO BY PEOPLE WHO WEREN'T INCONVENIENCED
Margaret Henderson is not convinced. Gerald would never have touched it.
A Sumner man who pushed an abandoned Pak'nSave trolley four kilometres from Ferrymead back to its rightful supermarket has been declared a local hero by everyone except this reporter, who has questions.
Derek Whitcombe, 58, of Wakefield Avenue, says he spotted the trolley listing into a hedge near the roundabout on Sunday morning and decided, for reasons known only to himself, that he was the man for the job. "Just seemed like the right thing," he told The Daily Yarn, which is precisely what people say when they want a fuss made of them.
My late husband Gerald walked trolleys back his entire adult life and never once rang the paper about it. He also never wore the high-vis vest Mr Whitcombe was photographed in, which he apparently keeps in the garage "for occasions".
A neighbour, Lynette Brouwer, said Derek had been "talking about the trolley all week" at the Sumner Bowling Club and had shown several people a photo of himself with it. "He's a lovely man," she said, in the tone women use when they mean the opposite.
A Pak'nSave spokesperson confirmed the trolley had been returned and was "a bit buggered" from the journey, with one wheel now pointing the wrong way and a Subway wrapper jammed in the child seat. They thanked Mr Whitcombe but noted the trolley would have been collected by their contractor on Tuesday regardless.
Mr Whitcombe is reportedly already eyeing a second trolley near the Ferrymead bridge. The Sumner Residents' Association has not yet decided whether this constitutes community spirit or simply a man avoiding his wife.
Derek Whitcombe, 58, of Wakefield Avenue, says he spotted the trolley listing into a hedge near the roundabout on Sunday morning and decided, for reasons known only to himself, that he was the man for the job. "Just seemed like the right thing," he told The Daily Yarn, which is precisely what people say when they want a fuss made of them.
My late husband Gerald walked trolleys back his entire adult life and never once rang the paper about it. He also never wore the high-vis vest Mr Whitcombe was photographed in, which he apparently keeps in the garage "for occasions".
A neighbour, Lynette Brouwer, said Derek had been "talking about the trolley all week" at the Sumner Bowling Club and had shown several people a photo of himself with it. "He's a lovely man," she said, in the tone women use when they mean the opposite.
A Pak'nSave spokesperson confirmed the trolley had been returned and was "a bit buggered" from the journey, with one wheel now pointing the wrong way and a Subway wrapper jammed in the child seat. They thanked Mr Whitcombe but noted the trolley would have been collected by their contractor on Tuesday regardless.
Mr Whitcombe is reportedly already eyeing a second trolley near the Ferrymead bridge. The Sumner Residents' Association has not yet decided whether this constitutes community spirit or simply a man avoiding his wife.