Eagle-eyed refuse worker spots £2,500 worth of stolen hospital gowns

Claire Robinson met with Paul Green to say thank you after the eagle-eyed rubbish collector spotted a suitcase full of adapted clothes made into gowns by the firm Inga Wellbeing.

Mr Green, 42, of Crown Street, Fratton, was working near the residents’ entrance to Gunwharf Quays when he saw the dumped suitcase on Wednesday.

Inside he found the gowns, and then made the connection with a post shared on Facebook trying to track them down after they were taken from a car in Keydell Close, Horndean, on Monday.

Now Claire has thanked Paul for returning the items to the company, which launched in January after three years of planning.

‘The loss of our stock was so upsetting,’ the company co-founder said.

‘To lose so many of our clothes and know that it would be dumped, and therefore not able to bring comfort to those they were intended for was heart-breaking.

‘We cannot thank Paul enough for his incredible vigilance in checking the content of a suitcase that he found during this clearance job, and having found the stock to have gone to such efforts to return them to us.

‘The power of social media has been harnessed in such a positive way this week, and we are ecstatic to be reunited with the clothes that were produced with such love.’

The gowns are designed to help improve peoples’ mental and physical wellbeing by offering an alternative to standard hospital clothing.

Inga Wellbeing, based in West Ashling, Chichester, sell items from £49.95.

Paul said: ‘I was litter-picking this area, we’ve got a suitcase that was full of bits and pieces.

‘If I hadn’t have seen that post we would have tipped it and it would have been in 40 to 50 tonnes of rubbish.

‘It was a nice one because I’m not a great Facebook lover but use it for the business.

‘It’s nice to have a good thing come back from it.’

A Hampshire police spokeswoman said: ‘We received a report regarding a theft from a vehicle which happened sometime between 3am and 7am on April 24.

‘Anyone with information is asked to call us on 101, quoting 44170151887.’