Pensioner sees red after paint explosion ruins coat

Alison Smedley had bought paint from Aylesbury's Homebase store on which exploded over her, ruining her coat, shoes and wallet.

Alison Smedley, 68, from Tetsworth, had bought the pot of red paint for her doorstep from the Aylesbury branch of Homebase at the Broadfields Retail Park.

After the cashier bagged the items – including the paint – into one of the store’s plastic bags and handed it to her, she heard a loud bang.

Mrs Smedley said: “I jumped when I heard the noise because it was so loud. Everyone around the checkouts was shocked.

Homebase has said it will reimburse Mrs Smedley for the coat, shoes and wallet that were ruined

“I saw red liquid on the floor and on my clothes. I thought it was blood at first and I panicked.”

The red paint had exploded over Mrs. Smedley’s new coat, as well as her shoes and purse.

She said the store manager ‘dabbed’ at her coat with kitchen roll in attempt to remove the paint, before telling her to get the coat dry cleaned and sending him the bill.

However, the dry cleaners were unable to get the paint out, meaning Mrs Smedley had to pay £202 to replace her coat, purse and other items of clothing.

But when she sent the bill to the store as instructed, she says the manager refused to cough up the cash.

She said: “I am furious. It was such an unpleasant experience.”

After being contacted by the this paper, Homebase agreed to fully reimburse Alison for her expenses.

A spokesman for the company said: “Homebase would like to sincerely apologise to Ms Smedley for the incident that occurred in our Aylesbury Broadfield store.

“We have spoken with Ms Smedley and as a gesture of goodwill we would like to reimburse the cost of both her dry cleaning bill and a new set of clothing.”