Five-year-old left heartbroken by Great Yarmouth trampoline theft

IT was a dream gift for a five-year-old – an enclosed trampoline upon which to bounce away any excess energy.

But little Corben Reynolds, who is on the Asperger’s spectrum – a type of autism in which people can have difficulty in social situations – has been left heartbroken after his favourite toy was swiped from outside his Great Yarmouth home this week.

Bought last summer to go in the front yard of the family home on Arundel Road, it was stolen over night on Monday, just a day after the Caister Infant School pupil celebrated his birthday.

His mother Donna, 33, was the first to notice its disappearance when she left at 6.50am Tuesday morning to go to her job as a hotel reception manager at Great Yarmouth’s Comfort Hotel.

She said: “I walked out the front door and couldn’t believe what I saw – it was in our front garden no longer, and when Corben came out to go to school and saw it had gone he said ‘I loved that trampoline’ and then burst into tears.

“He was over the moon when he got it and I’m so sad for him more than anything. How someone could do that when it’s a child’s toy I just don’t know.”

The mother-of-three explained she and her husband Wayne had bought the 1.5m trampoline specifically to allow their son to let off some steam.

A fan of trampolines from a young age, he would go on the ones along Yarmouth’s seafront and rush over to those at his friend’s house whenever possible.

However with no back garden the Reynolds had been forced to put it their a front yard – surrounded by a four foot wall, the space seemed to offer safe spot.

“If things aren’t as they should be and not in their regular place then he finds it very difficult to cope with change, and he used to go on it for an hour or so every day – it was a good way to release energy,” Donna said.

“I just can’t believe someone would take it and it’s quite scary really.”