Help a little girl after theft.

[Timbo]

I'm hoping all the internet savvy forum members can help me track down an item on the internet? I picked my granddaughter up from nursery today and she was distraught. For the second time in as many months some thieving oik has stolen her coat. This is not the problem as I will buy her another one, but what is a problem was the theft of Bertie Beetle who was in her coat pocket at the time. Quite a number of years ago I bought a curio at a craft fair. It was a small wooden, yellow painted 'pear' fruit. The pear was hinged and when you flipped the top back it revealed a small highly painted wooden beetle mounted on a very thin dowel inside. The beetle's legs were in turn fixed to the body by very tiny 'curtain hook' type rings which gave the legs the appearance the beetle was moving his legs.

I didn't pay very much for Bertie Beetle but he means the world to little Gracie who in true kid fashion was adamant that Timbo would be able to 'find me another Bertie and bring him to me right away'. The problem being I can't find another Bertie online and can't for the life of me remember where I bought him from. Unfortunately I don't have a photograph but would appreciate any help in searching out another Bertie please?

[Gracie]

Awe, poor little Gracie, can someone please tell me how anyone could steal a coat from a little girl? It beggars belief, it really does

Timbo, googling as we speak, will post if I find anything out

Grace

[Paladin]

Search Google for 'wooden nut jitter bug'. This is just one result, there are others http://www.toyday.co.uk/shop/party-time/party-bag-toys/wooden-nut-jitter-bug/prod_5312.html

[LizG]

I have Radio 4 on at this very moment and they are talking about someone called Bertie (as in Wooster).  How spooky is that - threw me, reading about Bertie and then hearing the word Bertie in one ear!  Sorry no help to above problem

[Timbo]

Thanks guy's you are brilliant!  As they say in musician's circles 'that's near enough for jazz' Paladin. I've ordered a box of 10 unfinished jitterbugs so I can break out the paints and varnish to make a close enough match to the abducted 'Bertie Beatle' as I can, and Gracie can help me paint Billy, Basil, Bosworth, Boris, Betty, Bob, Barney, Beatrice and Bartok (The Balalaika Bug).

I think Bertie may have been christened as I'm reading Wodehouse at the minute. But then it could be our Gracie as she tends to drag weird names out of the ether. 

As to who would steal a little girl's coat Gracie, you would be surprised. I think it's because we don't stint on things like coats that parents take a shine to the decent coat hanging on the peg outside the classroom. The first thing we do is check FaceTube locally to see if anyone has a remarkably similar 'second hand' coat up for sale.

Thanks once again folks for the swift replies. 

 

[grendel]

1 hour ago, Timbo said:

The first thing we do is check FaceTube locally to see if anyone has a remarkably similar 'second hand' coat up for sale.

Thanks once again folks for the swift replies. 

 

or indeed a Bertie beetle toy in a pear

[ExSurveyor]

You could always claim Bertie has been in hibernation and has changed a bit 

[BroadScot]

This past weekends weather up here, he would now be a "Brass Monkey"!

 Iain.

 

[Wildfuzz]

Iain,

 

These little critters are very common in Norfolk, when I crossed the border from Essex I was sorely teased by my mother in law about "Cantley" bugs....... and how every year thousands of these little critters descend on the Norfolk fields like a plague of locusts she even had one in a match box........ Little did I know that Cantley is the local sugar factory and the bug in the box was a little critter similar to that described by you mounted in a wooden match box. I never did live that one down, combined with my pronunciation od some of the local villages the marriage was always doomed!!!!

Some of the local gift shops do have these very things even called Cantley bugs, a good reason to come south for a week or two.

 

S.

 

[Timbo]

Billy Beetle Comes Home!

Thanks everyone for your help. A new batch of beetles arrived the other day, however news of a momentous nature as the day after the new beetles arrived...Billy Beetle came home! After a search of TubeFace I located Billy nestled in the pocket of a coat for sale...funny that!

Thanks again for everyones help.

[MauriceMynah]

Did he change hisa name by deed poll?

 

[Timbo]

25 minutes ago, MauriceMynah said:

Did he change hisa name by deed poll?

 

Apparently while on his travels he discovered the seedier, rock n roll lifestyle of the drug culture. Faced on his return by a doppelganger his drug addled mind  could not cope and Gracie thought it kinder to rename him. I did suggest Bowie Beetle but Grace said that was 'silly Timbo'. So Billy it is!