UK pensioners stuck with abandonned Aldi trolley in their garden for 7 weeks

An elderly couple who did a good deed by rescuing a dumped supermarket trolley and even cleaning it up had to wait SEVEN weeks for Aldi to come and pick it up. Pat and Betty Burke found it abandoned near their home in Deal, Kent but their efforts to give it back to Aldi, where it belonged, quickly became infuriating. Betty, 81, found the trolley in an alley around the corner from where she and her husband, former mayor of Canterbury Pat, 82, live seven weeks ago. She said it was impossible for her to walk it back because she has to stay with her disabled husband at all times because of his health conditions, including him being partially sighted. It was also too big to fit into their car. She was told by customer services on the phone that the trolley, which they had to keep in their front garden because they had no room anywhere inside, would be picked up. But when no one came to collect it they made two more phone calls but still had no joy. The couple visited the Aldi branch in Park Street, Deal, three times to report it but their efforts were still in vain. Betty said: “It's all been nonsense. It's not damaged so they could have come over and wheeled it back straight away. I even cleaned it for them. "It would take one of their staff 15 to 20 minutes to walk over and pick it up. "It seemed wicked to just leave it there. It could have got vandalised. I'm told these trolleys cost about £100 each." Betty added: “They told us they were sorry it hadn't been collected but in the end, we were told this had to be dealt with by head office." Pat, who is also an ex-chairman of the city council's environmental health committee, said: “I don't like to see things thrown away and wasted. “Because I'm disabled I couldn't take it back down there. I'd love to be able to." The trolley was finally collected by Aldi on Tuesday after the store was contacted by a local newsgroup on Sunday. An Aldi spokesman said: “We apologise for the inconvenience this has caused Mr and Mrs Burke. “We’re pleased this has now been resolved by the team at their local store.” The company says a delay in response from the trolley retrieval firm to Aldi’s customer services team prevented it from being collected sooner.