A young woman whose car was stolen and written off by callous thieves has told how her parents were left fearing she had been involved in a serious crash.
Emily Wood was visiting a friend at the Castle Hotel in Dunbar, East Lothian, on March 31, after parking her Volkswagen Polo on the nearby High Street.
After enjoying some drinks, the 26-year-old went back to her pal’s house and stayed the night - intending to collect her motor the following day, Edinburgh Live reports.
But she was contacted by her frantic parents on Friday morning after her father received a call from the police saying that her vehicle had been involved in a collision.
Police believe that the keys were swiped from Emily during her time at the hotel.
But the theft has left her without means of getting around, she said: “I need it for work as I work with Midlothian council - so I need it for driving there and back.
“Same with going to the gym as I go to Pure Gym at the Fort. I had just bought it in August.
“I worked seven days a week for a long time to get myself a nice car and just like that it’s gone. I live in Dunbar and buses are a nightmare.
“The car is going to be a write off, my friend said. So I am just waiting on the insurance company to confirm this.”
On the incident, she continued: “I was up seeing my friend when she was working in the Castle Hotel in Dunbar.
“We left the pub when she closed up before we walked back to hers when I then fell asleep.
“When I turned my phone on in the morning, my mum had phoned me in floods of tears as the police had called my dad to say that a car he was insured on had been in an accident.
“My dad went to my room to see if I was there, and because I wasn’t there he assumed I had been in the accident, as my phone was off so they couldn’t reach me.
“The police have been informed. Unfortunately there’s no CCTV anywhere which shows the car being taken.
“The council camera was on my car until 1:35am, but at that stage the camera turned around to face a different direction.
“The car was pulling out of the central reservation heading northbound to Dunbar, and then it pulled out in front of the lorry and the lorry clipped the back of it.”
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Around 6am on Friday, 1 April, police were called to the A1 near the junction with the A1107, following a report of a crash involving a lorry and a Volkswagen Polo.
“There were no injuries reported and the Polo driver left the area.
“Enquiries have established that this car was stolen from the High Street area of Dunbar, sometime between 1.30am and 5.20am that morning.
“The investigation remains ongoing.”
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