North London native and World War II veteran Frank Curtis is almost a 100 years old. He’s 96.
As a young man, he served his country by helping liberate a concentration camp and was even blown out of a gun carrier during combat.
These days, he likes to — every once in a while — take his mobility scooter down a few blocks from where he lives to a local shopping center, and grab a bite to eat. While he does this, he’ll abandon his ride for a little while, then chow down.
This ritual went unhindered until one dark day recently, when the elderly war vet came back from a meal to find a “passive aggressiveness” note on his scooter blithely accusing him of terrorism or, at the very least, creating a conducive habitat (or vessel) for a terrorist attack.
This from the Independent:
The shopping center management asked the pensioner to stop “dumping” his ride unattended, telling him that “in light of current world terrorist events” it’s unacceptable practice.
This is what Frank told a local media outlet about the situation:
I find this extremely unreasonable as the area and surrounding high road is filled with parked cars which could be packed with explosives and form a far greater danger than my open, exposed scooter.
I do occasionally, when it’s raining, park my scooter in the un-gated portion of The Spires establishment. This is because I frequent a nearby restaurant and shops.
The shopping center has, reportedly, since “written” to Frank for the unfortunate incident, one they now admit was a mistake.