James Stanley

I helped a French child fix a stolen moped

Thu 16 October 2014

While Feroz and I were driving my van around France, we came across a child with a moped at the side of the road in some woods. He appeared to have broken down and we decided to help him. We pulled over and asked if he spoke English. He did not.

A casual glance at his moped revealed that most of the indicators were hanging off and the rear brake wasn't even connected. We suspect the moped was stolen.

Communication was getting nowhere, so I retrieved my toolbox from my van and presented it to him. The child rummaged around and located the spanner he needed, applied the spanner briefly to his moped, returned it and thanked us. He then removed a small nail from his pocket, poked it through the clutch of his moped, bump-started the moped and rode off.

We caught up with him quickly and overtook him.