CANOE enthusiast Wendy Gardiner has a problem – she's a fair way from the River Wye and somebody's pinched the specially-adapted canoe-carrying roof rack from her car.
"They left not a mark on the car – not a scratch – and nor did they take the radio or anything. Just the roof rack gone with V-shaped supports for my canoe.
"It makes me wonder what they wanted it for – why do thieves take something like that if it's not to help them steal something else?
"I woke up in the night and worried about this – it's not so much just the theft, which is annoying.
"Unluckily too I have just been through to my insurance company and I can't claim for the loss of the roof rack, which is only worth about £100 in itself, when I have to pay £100 excess anyway.
" I have called the canoe clubs to alert them that it has been stolen. It might stop someone else suffering and it could even help trace mine."
Mrs Gardiner, of Coleford, comes from a canoe-mad family. Her three children – Ruth, 21, Kate, 18, and Adam, 14 – are all mad keen, while her ex-husband is a canoe instructor.
"The eldest went canoeing up in Scotland when she was in college and now she's in America," she said.
Wendy gets out as often as she can in her racing canoe and normally paddles on the Wye. While she no longer races, she gets a lot out of recreational canoeing. The theft has obviously stopped all this for a while.
"It is a very distinctive adaption with big V-bars to cradle the canoe," she said. "I am asking everyone to keep a look out for it and to be especially wary if they are offered one for sale."