AN NHS midwife who had just finished a 12-hour night shift was left devasted after teenage yobs stole her moped from Torbay Hospital car park – and trashed it.
Hard-working Maggie Traynor from Ipplepen, was covering an extra shift for a colleague earlier this month when she finished, only to find her only mode of transport had been stolen.
In a heart-warming twist, a helpful witness who discovered the trashed motorcycle called to say she had recognised Maggie who was spotted searching for the moped. It later transpired that Maggie delivered her son around 17-years-ago.
Concerned witnesses saw three teenagers (two boys and one girl) joyriding the stolen moped in a Torquay suburb at around midnight with no helmets.
The bike was trashed and left in a ditch with no headlights and most of the electrics ripped out.
Upon finishing her shift on the morning of the theft, Maggie was forced to hitch a lift with a colleague to collect her bike from the Barton Cross area of Torquay.
She has been riding a push-bike to and from work ever since.
According to witnesses, a girl seen joyriding with the boys on the bike had distinctive ‘bleached blonde hair.’
Maggie’s ‘fella’- Ian, has been busy ordering the parts to do the repairs to the bike himself, which even without labour has cost around £300.
‘They were seen driving around by witnesses’, said Maggie. ‘The thought of my teenage children doing something like that… it’s just awful.’
‘I’ve always said it,’ she added,‘little crimes soon become big crimes when it comes to teenagers.’
Long-term partner Ian said that Maggie was – ‘as always’ – being too nice about the situation. He said: ‘These kids need to know the damage they’ve done.
‘It was a Chinese-made scooter. It wasn’t worth much money, those kids nicked it, they had no idea of the ripple effect they caused.’
He added: ‘She needed her scooter for work and so many people depend on her. We need to bring people like this to book.’
Ian explained that since the pandemic Maggie had regularly been working 12-hour days, ‘even more than usual’ given the increased staff sickness and self-isolation during the pandemic.
Given her senior status and experience Maggie is looked to and relied upon by much of the natal-ward staff.
‘She just laughs it off’, Ian explained. ‘But it’s not fair, nobody should be treated like this.’
Laughs it would seem however, may soon be justified as according to Maggie, the teenagers ‘may’ been have caught on nearby CCTV.