Felpham mum ‘gutted’ after postbox topper stolen in less than 24 hours

The topper, which went up at seven o’clock on Thursday evening (August 12) was reported missing by lunch time the following day, an outcome which left Felpham resident Jan Budd, who has been making and distributing the cosies since late June, ‘fuming’.

“I’m just gutted.” Mrs Budd said. “I think it’s sick that some people could actually do that.”

“If it went missing overnight, I’d think someone took it on their way home from the pub, but it didn’t. It went missing in broad daylight.”

Mrs Budd has been making the toppers for several months, starting out with designs inspired by the courage of NHS staff and the delights of life by the sea, but a positive response from the local community inspired her to keep going, to get even more ambitious with her designs.

The latest topper, her sixth, was her most intricate yet. Featuring three minions from the Universal Pictures film Despicable Me sitting in a lifebuoy, it represented a considerable amount of time and emotional effort for Mrs Budd.

“It’s absolutely terrible,” added her husband Bobd. “It was quite a nice one with minions on it and everything. Jan spent quite a long time knitting it and designing it and everything, but unfortunately it wasn’t even up for 24 hours. It’s just dreadful.”

Both Bob and Jan have been impressed by the response of the wider community which, they say, is doing everything it can to bring the postbox topper back.

“Our daughter is much better at Facebook than we are and she’s put it round and lots of people have shared it. The ex-mayor of Bognor has got involved!” Mr Budd added.

“We must have had five or six hundred people commenting on it saying how sad it was.”

Mr Budd added that local postmen were involved with the effort, too, putting up posters throughout the village in an attempt to locate the missing cosy.”

“It’s been an absolutely brilliant response,” he said “really good positive feedback from a negative situation.”