Charity sells customer's £1,200 bike in error

A cycling backpacker who popped into a charity shop to try on some bargain clothes was counting the cost yesterday after staff mistook her £1,200 bike for a donation and sold it for just £10.

Emily Harris, from Palmer in Alaska, left the customised bicycle unattended for five minutes inside a British Heart Foundation shop in Edinburgh while she slipped into the store's changing rooms.

The 25-year-old fire-eater emerged to discover the bicycle she had used to travel around the world had been sold.

Jean Prentice, who sold the bike, said: "It was a busy Saturday and donations get continually left in the shop, so when this man asked how much the bike was, I said £10. We didn't know it belonged to a lady who was in the changing room. She was in a dreadful state. But she should have alerted us before she went in."

Ms Harris, who is in Scotland with a circus troupe, Circo Rivo, built the road bike herself four years ago. She has lovingly customised the bike and used it to tow a 150lb trailer containing all her possessions across the US, Canada, Mexico, Spain, France and the UK.

"It's the only material object I have ever cared about," said Ms Harris, who claims she had gone to the changing room to try on a shirt and had left the bike for only five minutes.

"When I came out and it wasn't there I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. My knees turned to jelly and I fell down. I was hysterical.

"I take responsibility for the bike and don't expect other people to look after my property but I didn't think it would be sold.

"I even uglified it with black tape so that thieves wouldn't recognise that it was valuable.

"The bike's my entire way of life," said the performer, who hopes that the Asian man who bought the bike will return it to the shop when he realises the mistake.

"If he doesn't give it back the Karmic ramifications could be terrible. I don't deserve this, I haven't been bad."