OAP's pride and joy flattened by tree

Oct 18 2007 By Will Oliphant, Birmingham Mail

A PENSIONER locked his car in his garage to keep it safe, only for a tree to fall down and wreck it.

Bob Ward thought he was protecting his motor by leaving it in his garage for the weekend.

But he reckoned without the devastation wrought by a tree which collapsed on Saturday night, ruining the 73-year-old's gleaming Audi A4.

"I couldn't believe it," said Bob, a retired technical medical officer.

"I thought I was keeping my car safe when I put it away and then this happens. I was completely stunned."

Bob, of Palmcourt Avenue, Hall Green, slept through the tree's collapse, leaving a neighbour to break the bad news the following morning.

He said he was mystified because Saturday night's weather was calm and mild, although it was thought the tree's roots may have been rotten or affected by previous outbreaks of rain.

"It was incredible," said Bob. "I might have expected it on a windy night but there wasn't any wind and it was very calm.

"I've checked with all my neighbours and nobody even heard it come down.

"I wouldn't have minded so much but last weekend I didn't put my car in the garage because I knew I was going to need it over the weekend. If it had happened then, it wouldn't have been so bad."

The four-year-old car had been in mint condition.

But Bob said his 71-year-old wife, Catherine, persuaded him to look on the bright side.

"She said it could have been a lot worse and at least nobody was hurt," he said.