Stranded man finds ‘abducted’ wife at races

Press, 8 March 1989, Page 5

Stranded man finds ‘abducted’ wife at races

PA Auckland After Mrs Louise Cooke drove off leaving her husband, Mr Edgar Cooke, stranded on the southern motorway in Auckland, he thought she had been abducted. In fact, she had gone to the races and was eventually found, unharmed, at Claudelands trotting track in -Hamilton after Mr Cooke had called in the police. The trouble began just 100 m on to the motorway near Symonds Street on Saturday, when the Cookes, both aged 62, of Glendene, found they had a flat tyre. It should have been easy to fix — they had two jacks in the boot, one of which was new, but the new one was unable to raise the car and the old one was useless. So Mrs Cooke suggested her husband hide in some nearby bushes while she flagged down a passing motorist for help. “They always help a lady,” she said. And stop someone did. But it was half an hour before Mrs Cooke was ready to pull into the traffic stream. She was so busy concentrating on pulling out that she did not see her husband, who was frantically waving at her from

his post in the bushes. Mrs Cooke thought he must have decided to walk further along the motorway, so she kept driving, finally believing he had gone home. She kept on with the original plan and went to the races. Meanwhile, Mr Cooke thought his wife had not stopped because she had been abducted by a man hiding in the back seat of the car. He walked off the motorway to Khyber Pass Road — minus his wallet, which was in the car — and got a free ride with a sympathetic bus driver, who let him off near his son’s workplace. He then rang the police. “I hope it was the right thing to do,” he said. “I didn’t want to waste the police’s time, but I was becoming very worried.” When she heard her name over the loudspeaker at the racecourse, Mrs Cooke thought something terrible had happened to her husband. She was surprised when she found whe was the one thought to be in danger. Mr and Mrs Cooke are beginning to see the humour of. the incident. And Mrs Cooke did make some money out of her brief sojourn at the track.