A disabled grandmother was today fuming after teenage yobs took her precious scooter for a joyride.

Mary Storey, 63, relies on the electric scooter to get around and was distraught when it was taken from outside her home in Eastbrooks Place, Pitsea.

Daughter Nikki Hammond was so upset to see her mother stranded without her "legs" she called to make an appeal.

The scooter disappeared for a day and was discovered dumped in a nearby garden - thanks to Mrs Storey's granddaughter. The scooter had been hotwired and dumped with broken wing mirrors.

Mrs Hammond said: "My niece overheard a couple of boys boasting about stealing the scooter at school. She went to the road where they said they had left it and there it was. Joyriding a scooter is hardly something to boast about!"

Mrs Storey, who has a heart condition and bad arthritis, was left feeling ill and depressed after the scooter was taken.

Her husband Michael, 67, said: "We are obviously pleased to have the scooter back, although very annoyed at the fact it has happened. We now face a bill of a good few hundred pounds to get the repairs done."

Furious - husband Michael Storey says it will cost hundreds of pounds to repair the scooter

Picture: NICK ANSELL

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.