Woman receives free Range Rover after offering to swap her horse on Facebook Marketplace
A woman who was forced to try and trade her beloved horse for a car after her old motor broke down has ended up with a free Range Rover, and she's been able to keep the horse.
27-year-old Alicia Moss used to do her driving in a Volkswagen Golf until it suddenly went kaput, and without the money to buy a new car she resorted to trading in her other means of transportation, a mare called Pizza.
Taking to Facebook Marketplace to pitch the swap deal of horse for horsepower, Alicia wrote: "Unlike Roger, Pizza starts every morning, doesn’t have an engine warning light, and has only ever left me stranded because she fancied grass.
"This is either the world’s worst sales advert or the start of a very questionable deal... either way, my inbox is open."
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If you know the internet then you'll know a post like that has a good chance of going viral, and Alicia's offer was seen by almost a million people and she got over 170 comments from people trying to strike a deal with her.
The dock worker said she really didn't want to lose her beloved horse Pizza and needed 'a bit of a laugh', since she thought she 'had nothing to lose at the time' and needed money or a car.
Fortunately for Alicia she was contacted by a bloke called Pete Wood who made a counteroffer, rather than swapping a car for a horse he'd give her a grey 2008 Range Rover HSE TDV8 for free.
It turns out Pete really liked the post and didn't want Alicia to be without Pizza, so he was willing to part with the car for nothing.
He'd had the car for 18 years when he bought it new, it still passes its MOT and has about 95,000 miles on the clock so Alicia is very happy about her new motor.
She said: "On the post a guy commented saying he had a Range Rover that I could have free of charge so that I could keep my horse.
"I thought it couldn’t be real, but I messaged him. He didn’t want a swap he wanted me to keep my horse and to see his car go to good use."
She picked up the car a week after Pete made the offer and as far as she's concerned this has been 'a really happy ending' which has left everyone satisfied.
An added bonus of getting a 4x4 is that Alicia now has something that could tow a trailer for her horse.
Alicia said that Pete was 'the loveliest guy ever' and she's 'so grateful for what he offered', so he's made his way onto her Christmas card list.
The woman has been bowled over by the offer of a free car as she said 'things like that don't really happen to anyone, let alone me'.
She's got four horses but it was Pizza she thought would be the best candidate for sale since the mare is the only one old enough to be worth enough money for her to afford a car.
The mare's name came from joking that the horse's mum was pregnant 'pizza was in the oven' instead of a bun.
The horse is like an 'overgrown Labrador' and she really didn't want to sell Pizza, but 'needs must' and 'sometimes you have to do things you don't want to'.
Fortunately thanks to Pete gifting her a free car she doesn't have to deliver Pizza to anyone just yet.
"Luckily thanks to this lovely guy I didn’t need to," she said of being able to keep her beloved horse, and she's promised to keep Pete informed about how his old car is doing.
She said: “I am so glad that she is safe. She is like my first child.
“In a time where there is so much going on in the world there is always someone out there just trying to do a nice thing, and it goes a long way.
“He has done a lot for me without probably even realising what he has done.”
Joe Harker