A four-year-old has been reunited with his favourite Star Wars Lego character after it slipped into a – BALLOT BOX.
Carter Allen went with his family to his local polling station in Ed Miliband’s Doncaster North constituency on election day.
But as he went to place his mum’s ballot in the box – in slipped Carter’s homemade ‘Star Wars man’.
Crestfallen Carter was told by council staff they couldn’t access the box until after the poll closed.
But the box was long gone and he lost hope that the toy would ever be returned.
Five days later schoolboy Carter was reunited with his top toy – and the happy moment was captured on video which has now been watched by thousands of people online.
He went to the polls with mum Olivia, 23, dad Richard, 26, and sister Honey, two.
Olivia, who works for Peugeot, said: “I had three votes to fill out so I thought it would be nice to let my two children put the papers in the box for me.
“I was voting but when I looked over to Carter his face had gone white and he was crying his eyes out because the Lego man had dropped into the box.”
First-time voter Olivia asked the presiding officer at Scawsby Community Centre, Doncaster, South Yorks., to open up the ballot box so they could fish out the Lego man, but were told it was against the law to access the voting papers before the polls closed.
“The lady sat behind the registration desk couldn’t believe how upset he was, but she suggested that we write a note explaining what had happened, with our contact details on, and stick it in the ballot box and hopefully someone would see it,” she said.
She contacted Doncaster Racecourse, where the count took place, over the weekend for help to find the toy, but as time went on she began to lose hope.
On Monday she called the racecourse who told her they no longer had the ballot boxes and they had been passed back to the council.
Olivia called the electoral services department, who said it was unlikely the figure would be found.
However on Tuesday, she got a call from the council to say ‘Star Wars man’ had been rediscovered.
Olivia took Carter along to Doncaster Council on Tuesday evening, but didn’t tell the youngster the toy had been recovered.
The moment an overjoyed Carter looked in the ballot box was captured on camera by workers at Doncaster Council.
At the end of the video, Carter said: “Thank you. I’m so happy that you found my Lego man.”
Olivia said: “When he opened the box he was absolutely delighted.
“He usually goes to bed with his Lego pieces. I can’t really explain why, but they are just so precious to him.”
Olivia said: “He was so happy. He ran over to me and said ‘I love you so much’ I had to try hard not to cry. It was very emotional.
“He hasn’t let go of it since we got home.”
Lego-mad Carter has been building his collection for about a year.
Olivia, married to Richard, who works for a security firm, said: “We have to keep buying him new pieces because he just doesn’t want to take down any of the buildings he’s made or people he’s created.”
Staff at Doncaster Council have given Carter some other Lego toys as a gift, including a Spiderman car.
