Another shot of Lotty, with the original rear numberplate, sill strip and rear wing badging and taken on one of the rare days when the electric windows were working. By now Lotty was coming along nicely.
Well it would do, all those regular breakdowns meant that the dodgy bits were being gradually replaced. Just not always on a planned schedule... I call it "roadside maintenance"
Then one night Lotty was stolen.
Now in those days the height of anti-theft sophistication was a device called a “Krooklock” which hooked between the steering wheel and brake pedal.
Of course being so innocent in those days I never realised that all a thief had to do was bend the steering wheel to remove the lock, which was exactly that they did. (Even after straightening you can still see a mark)
But back to the tale.
They drove off and successfully outran the police cars chasing them (hmm, now that gave me something to think about....) They escaped towards Liverpool and doubled back into Widnes after losing the police cars.
But they were caught later that night because they went to hide behind a cinema car park where two policemen were conveniently having a quiet cigarette.
They tried to reverse out but good old Lotty chose that moment to throw a hissy fit and the thieves were arrested. The police rang me about my car at 3am that morning - "come and pick it up tomorrow - but we've had to tow it in, engine runs but the car won't go".
Fearing the worst, I turned up at the police station with a bag of tools, sat in the car and pumped the throttle to start the engine. Nothing.
Then light dawned and I smiled, jumped out of the car and opened the bonnet to find that the insulating tape on my throttle-cable bodge had slipped off. The policeman just shook his head when I wrapped a new bit of tape on and drove off.....
Who says a good bodge never pays off ?
