Bouncy castle recovered

The scammer hired the bouncy castle for a party at his Marsh Green home, claiming it was in aid of his six-year-old daughter who had cancer. But when staff from the St Helens firm went to pick it up afterwards it had gone and the house was empty with a To Let sign outside.

Steve Slater appealed for help in our sister paper the Wigan Evening Post and set up a Facebook page to appeal for the return of the Disney-themed inflatable and quickly attracted a large number of supportive messages from Marsh Green residents.

And it paid off, with the bouncy castle now being found dumped on the DW Stadium car park for its rightful owner to collect.

A grateful Mr Slater today thanked everyone who had supported him. He said: “I’d like to thank all the decent people of Marsh Green who gave me information and left messages through the Facebook page.

“There’s a lot of good people in the area who supported us, and fortunately the stolen bouncy castle soon appeared. It’s clearly been used and they’ve had a party, but it hasn’t been damaged, and I’m very pleased to have got it back.”

Mr Slater said the company had only agreed to the hire due to its being for a charity event.