Schoolgirl gets lost Disney trip bags back after appeal
A nine-year-old girl is to be reunited with her bags months after she left them on a train from Disneyland Paris.
Freya Brake, from Leicester, lost her luggage when she was returning home from the trip in February. A Belgian Railways lost property worker wanted to return the bags before retiring and only had shop receipts linking them to Leicester. Fiona Brake said her daughter "screamed with amazement" when she heard they had been found following an appeal. Geert De Schepper enlisted the help of BBC Radio Leicester to help trace the owner of the pink backpack and sparkly holdall. "I'm about to retire after a 42-year career, so it would please me a lot if this case would have a happy ending," he said at the time. Inside the bag were photographs, a sketchbook and receipts for the Smiggle store in Leicester. After finding a connection to the city, Mr De Schepper contacted the BBC who put out a Twitter appeal which led to Freya's family being found. Freya said she never thought she would see her bags again, which contained gifts from Christmas. Mrs Brakes said: "We were so sad when we lost it and we gave up [trying to find them] after a month. "We did ring, call and e-mail, and she was so upset because there were loads of her personal belongings in there." When Mrs Brakes got the call to say the bags had been found, she said her daughter was "screaming with amazement." Mr De Schepper said: "I simply love it when a plan comes together." Follow BBC East Midlands on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. Send your story ideas to eastmidsnews@bbc.co.uk.