Police use Twitter to find stolen transit van that is little boy’s ‘lifeline’

Police in Surrey have thanked the public for their assistance in locating a transit van which was stolen from an address in the Epsom area over the weekend.

In a social media appeal for help, police said the custom-made Ford van was a “lifeline” for Harvey and shared photos of the little boy who uses a wheelchair, as well as the missing vehicle.

In a series of tweets posted on Sunday, Surrey Police said: “We URGENTLY need your help. Please RT and/or copy the link and send to friends, especially in the Epsom area. Two vehicles were stolen from an address, one is a specially adapted vehicle for Harvey.

“The Transit is a lifeline for Harvey, so we’re desperate to get it back for him and his family.”

Over the next few hours, the photo of the missing transit was retweeted over a thousand times, and then just before 7pm on Sunday, police had an update.

“We’re really pleased to confirm that the adapted van has been found,” Surrey Police said.

A subsequent post featured a video of Harvey reunited with the van with a “thank you” sign to all those who had helped.

The video showed Harvey pressing the button on a recording device which announced: “Thank you everybody who has seen the post about the nasty men that took our car and thank you all for keeping an eye out for my van. One lovely, lovely lady found my van this afternoon so I got it back. We’re so grateful to everybody for all your kind messages. Thank you, lots of love.”

The accompanying post from the police said: “A massive Thank You to everyone that RT the appeal earlier. The adapted van has been located and returned to Harvey. We’re still hunting the Audi, any help is hugely appreciated.”

The public is still being asked to help police locate the Audi Q5 which was also stolen. It has the registration plate: JGZ 6847.

If spotted, people are urged to contact 101.