In the 1960s I worked on building sites traveling from site to site in a caravan. There was my mate and I, my mate had his wife and little girl with him. Working in Liverpool, we left that late one evening in 1963 to go to a site closer to London. Arriving late at night the first thing we had to do is find a site for the caravan. We found a farm that still had their lights on. The farmer let us stay in his field righ next to the now famous Bridge.



By the way my mate had his wife and baby girl with him plus their little poodle. We got up had our breakfast and went to work, leaving the caravan there.

Driving to work, we listen to the news on the radio, talking about "The great train robbery" and how they were looking for a caravan with a baby and a white poodle. My mate said to me "what the hell has she been up to now".

Working though the day, Police cars were speeding one way then the other all day. At the end of the day we went back to the caravan. The farm gate was open and there was loads of wheel track in the mud by the gate.

When we got to the caravan my mates wife had been crying, she said "that morning the police came from everywhere started pulling the caravan to bits". "What for?" we asked, "They think we had something to do with the robbery" she sobbed clutching the baby.

She then said, "They phoned your firm up, to see where we were at the time of the robbery". The police found out that we could not have been there at the time of the robbery, leaving Liverpool at the time we did.

If we had robbed the train, would we gone to work with ?5million in our tool bags? Even footballers did not earn that salt of money then!

The next few days I saw the police looking for the loot everywhere. There was a car breakers yard with cars piled high, that we could see from our site. They moved the entire stock looking for some clues as to where the money was put. At least they left us alone!

Well a few weeks later my mate was sent to a different site to me, I had to go back to Liverpool. I left home in London about 8pm, at the approach to the M1 a man was thumbing a lift. I stopped and let him in saying "Liverpool all right" he did not say much.

About 12pm we got to a place I think was called Natwich or Northwich and took a wrong turning. Backing out of this turning a policeman stepped out. "Is this your motor" he said "yes" I said "can you prove it" he said "not here, all the docs are at home" I said.

The policeman got in my car and said "Take me to the police station to find out if it had been stolen." When we got to the station all three of us went in. Sitting in the police station, My passrnger said "I will get the map" and went to the car. About two minuets later the policeman came out holding a wanted poster with my passenger face on it, he had just escaped from jail.

The policeman asks me to drive him around looking for my passenger, as the police cars are all at another attempted mail train robbery at York and the trains on fire. We drove around for about 2 hours we kept seeing him bobbing about in the dark, but he just disappeared in the night.

As the policeman got out of my car he said he would pay for the petrol used. I thought to myself the cars got no road tax, so I said, "no that would be alright, it's on me" and drove off.

As things happen in three's, I'm still waiting for the third. But wait a minuet there was the time on holiday in Africa, I had hired car mini. There are not many roads where we were, so I just followed the coastal road and came to a tee junction. Two plicemen jumped out in front of me to stop me. They did not speak English but pointed a gun at my head and made gestures for me to go that way.

After about 4 or 5 miles they pointed for me to turn left. On looking I saw a big ion gate with "JAIL" written on top. The gates opened we drove in the gate shut. The two policemen run off.

Waiting about half an hour another policeman came over put his head in the window and said "Thank you for brining my mates home" and opened the gates, we shot out waving our hands.

Do you think that make the three?

Copyright (c) 2007 David Pearce