Yesterday at 7:19 PM • Edited yesterday at 7:55 PM
An evening at the swimming pool turned out to be a deception for Naomi de Brouwer (28) from Dongen. When she wanted to return home after swimming at Het Vennenbos on Sunday, she saw that her brand new stroller was suddenly gone. With her car keys in it.
A friend of Naomi’s stayed at the holiday park. She went there last weekend as a surprise with her two children for a swim. “I left my pram at the buggy station, but when I wanted to leave two hours later, my pram was gone.”
“You can’t be serious,” thought the mother of two daughters (2 and 3 years old). She panicked because her youngest child is still dependent on the stroller. “I need it for her very urgently. I could cry at that moment. I thought: why is this happening to me?”
“I couldn’t do anything else.”
She finds it extra sad because she currently has to make all ends meet. “That’s why I was so happy that my mother gave me it two days before.” Her car keys, with her house key and the house keys of her mother and friend, were also in it. She had forgotten to take it out.
Yet the switch changed quickly. “I couldn’t change it.” That evening she and her daughters spent the night at her friend’s park, but all the children’s belongings were still in the car, which she could not get into. “I borrowed bedding from the park and diapers and bottles from my girlfriend. I had no choice.”
“I picked them up at a quarter to twelve.”
Meanwhile, her mother looked at home for Naomi’s spare car key, but it turned out not to be there. She considered having her car towed, until it turned out that the spare keys were with her grandfather. “I picked them up at a quarter to twelve and put the car in the park. That wasn’t actually allowed, but that way the car was safe in case they came back and wanted to steal my car.” Naomi was also able to enter her house again the next day, because her best friend had a house key from her.
De Dongense had to have all the keys made. That cost her 60 euros. Blocking the car keys cost 150 euros. The stroller itself cost 200 euros. “I find that especially sad.” Buying a new one is not easy, so she temporarily borrows one from her friend. “But I can’t borrow it indefinitely either.”
“I can’t just get a new one.”
CCTV footage from the park allegedly showed a couple with children running off with a stroller, even though they did not have it with them on the way there. According to Naomi, the guests arrived at the park with a confused story. “They wanted to enter the park with the car, because the man allegedly had a broken leg. But what do you mean you go swimming with your broken leg?” Finally, they parked the car in the parking lot and walked to the pool.
Naomi hopes that the people who stole her Joie Litetrax stroller will return it. “For me it has a lot of value. I really need it and I can’t just get a new one.” There is no reimbursement through insurance. “I only have home contents insurance, so outdoors is not covered.” The police couldn’t do anything for her either. “This is bad luck.”
