The Mystery of Ben Needham

unreorganised wrote:

Andrew wrote:According to the 'somebody knows' documentary, Ben only ever had 2 toy cars. 2 toy cars that disappeared with him the day he vanished. 2 toy cars that Grandad didn't know anything about until 10 years later and 2 toy cars that Grandma didn't even give a second thought about until 10 years later.

Work that one out....

Ah... I think I had the entire "Matchbox 75". In fact I recognise quite a few of these.

Yeah recognise quite a few of those as well. I vaguely remember losing them a lot when out playing with them in the garden etc.

Now if Ben only ever had 2 cars you'd think that they'd remember them. I find it incredibly odd that they didn't appear to attach any relevance or significance to the toy cars back then. Not just odd but incredibly weird and suspicious.

And now we have a new-found toy car at the centre of it all.

Police - It's Ben's.
Grandma - Not sure.

Where's the rest of the BN thread gone? It's only showing 5 pages?

ETA - I've seen it further down. Sorry.

Andrew wrote:According to the 'somebody knows' documentary, Ben only ever had 2 toy cars. 2 toy cars that disappeared with him the day he vanished. 2 toy cars that Grandad didn't know anything about until 10 years later and 2 toy cars that Grandma didn't even give a second thought about until 10 years later.

Work that one out....

That's weird. Recently I read they bought the toy cars on Kos. But in the book they were given to Ben as a Christmas present the year before.

Yes, same here.

Ben Needham's toy car discovered at secret fly-tipping dump just hours before cops called off Kos search

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-toy-car-discovered-9066437

snipped

It was one of two Christine said she remembered buying in Kos town in summer of 1991 and Ben playing with them as they walked to the ­farmhouse the day he vanished.

She added: “It was the first time he’d not tried to climb out of the pushchair, so I was quite pleased. He sat happily in, they kept him really busy all the way up there.

“He had one in one hand and another in the other and he was banging them together to make a clanking noise.

“They were going ‘clank, clank’ but I thought it was quite good because it kept him occupied. I remember buying the two cars.

"We didn’t have much money so couldn’t afford much. He had a pull-along bus thing he used to sit on and these two cars. We were building up his toy ­collection because Kerry had just moved to Kos and she only bought a few bits and pieces with her.

Kerry, of Sheffield, added: “You do forget the toys your kids have until you see them again.

"I don’t think my mum wants to believe it though. I vaguely remember this toy car. It certainly looked familiar.

“I was with mum when we bought them from the toy shop in Kos.

“We bought him some farm animals at the same time.”

Has anyone got a quote from the book about the cars? Thanks

From the book, page 49:

"Christmas Day, 1990. ....

Ben ... received a lot of presents, including various dinky toy cars and cuddly toys."

I guess Kerry left those behind in the UK and they bought new ones in Kos.

Sounds reasonable as she only brought a few bits with her.

The car found in Kos is thought to be similar to this one

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-37688475

For what it's worth the above car was made by a company called Summer (Hong Kong), so not a dinky toy (Meccano Ltd). I suppose most die-cast cars were called dinky cars though, regardless of brand.

S688 MERCEDES-BENZ (200 SERIES) (1968) YELLOW LUCKY STAR #88 BENZINE


What is the provenance of the pic used by the BBC in the above article? Is it just a random pic of a yellow diecast car, similar to the one SYP found?

Something else I found interesting and not heard about before was that there was a truck/concrete mixer pouring concrete at the bottom of the lane the day Ben disappeared.

Now I assume that particular area was looked into at the time but I can't find anything at all about it.

Yes, I very much doubt that once the Police had found the toy car that they then shown it to the BBC. The BBC journo probably got wind it was yellow and plucked one dated from around the same time from google images and pasted it onto their article.

Due to computer gremlins, the topic has been split and it isn't possible to put the two back together.

Here is the previous one.

https://maddiemccannmystery.forumotion.co.uk/t1567-the-mystery-of-ben-needham

Ben only had 2 toy cars in Kos.

And they allegedly went missing with him.

You would remember those 2 cars very well indeed one would think.

But they can't.

For 10 years, Eddie didn't even know about the toy cars.

For 10 years, Christine had forgotten all about the toy cars.

Andrew wrote:Where's the rest of the BN thread gone? It's only showing 5 pages?

ETA - I've seen it further down. Sorry.

There are gremlins in the system.

Here are the previous pages.

https://maddiemccannmystery.forumotion.co.uk/t1567-the-mystery-of-ben-needham

@Andrew I seem to have missed out the bit about Eddie not knowing about the cars for ten years?

Hi Chrissie. It's 9 something mins in on the 'somebody knows' doc.

Have a look and see what you make of it...

Thanks Andrew, just at work so I'll watch it tonight.

chrissie wrote:Thanks Andrew, just at work so I'll watch it tonight.

No worries. Let us know what you think when you do.

Did you ask your mother, Unreorganised?

I'm sure she would've remembered if you only had 2..

And then you disappeared with them.

Andrew wrote:Did you ask your mother, Unreorganised?

I'm sure she would've remembered if you only had 2..

And then you disappeared with them.

We went to Morrisons. I picked up a toy car and asked her if we buried it in the garden and then dug it up in twenty five years, could she have me declared legally dead. She called me a few names. Our relationship is like that.

My son is still at the embarrassed-to-be-seen-anywhere-in-public-with-his-mother stage so no jaunts to the supermarket for us.

These discrepancies with what should be easy to recall factual events are worrying; there is more in common with the McCanns than I ever thought at first.

unreorganised wrote:

Andrew wrote:Did you ask your mother, Unreorganised?

I'm sure she would've remembered if you only had 2..

And then you disappeared with them.

We went to Morrisons. I picked up a toy car and asked her if we buried it in the garden and then dug it up in twenty five years, could she have me declared legally dead. She called me a few names. Our relationship is like that.

Ha. Yeah can relate to that.

Andrew wrote:

chrissie wrote:Thanks Andrew, just at work so I'll watch it tonight.

No worries. Let us know what you think when you do.

I have a suspicion that finding the duplo car was a set up. A nice lead in to mentioning the cars Ben had. The reason I say that is Eddie had passed the spot and wasn't even looking down, then suddenly he goes back.
Not saying that means anything other than the film-maker creating a nice little pastiche.

Personally, I find the whole toy car episode absolutely bizarre.

Which ever way you want to look at it.

A random question, but what does KN do for a profession....

In the last 25 years.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/style/fashion/trends/article82841.ece

In 2008 she was working with her then husband. What, if anything, she does now, I don't know.