Down in the dumps seven-year-old cheered up as binned ipad found in East Lothian rubbish site
A girl has been reunited with the treasured iPad her younger brother threw in the bin after workers sifted through 150 tonnes of rubbish to find it.
Zoey Kerr, seven, was devastated when her four-year-old brother Riley confessed he had thrown away the device she had been given for Christmas.
Her mother Gillian contacted the council to report the loss but feared the family would never see the iPad again.
However, a team at the Viridor waste site in Dunbar, East Lothian, found the device in a shed housing 150 tonnes of rubbish.
The family, who live in Eyemouth in the Borders, were moving house when they realised Zoey did not have her iPad.
Mrs Kerr, 28, said: I said to her brother Riley 'Do you know where your sister's iPad is?' And in a very matter-of-fact manner, he told me 'Yes, in the bin'. When I asked why, he just said: 'Because she annoyed me'.
When I reported it to the council and at the Eyemouth recycling centre, I really didn't think we'd see it again.
But the Viridor team took the time to find out where we lived to narrow down where it might be and then to search through the rubbish to find it. It has meant so much to our seven-year-old.''
Nine-year-old Jamie had been sharing his iPad with her sister after hers was lost last month.
The iPad was recovered from Viridor's new £177 million energy recovery facility.
Barry Falgate, Viridor Dunbar unit manager, said: Six men worked through their break to find the iPad and they were thrilled to be successful.''
Zoey, who turned seven on March 13, wrote a thank you letter and sent Riley's £20 Christmas money along with a box of chocolates to the team who found the iPad.
The Viridor workers sent the £20 back to the little girl but enjoyed the chocolates.
In a letter to Zoey, Chris Loughlin, chief executive of Pennon, the company which owns Viridor, said: When we heard what happened to your iPad we all wanted to find it for you. So, we were very happy when we found it. I'm very pleased it has now made it back home to you where it belongs.
I have included a voucher for you for iTunes as a thank you for your kind letter. I hope you can use this to download some of your favourite songs on to your iPad.''