A husband who bought his shoe-obsessed wife a pair of 14-foot long ruby slippers as a joke has been forced to sell them after she failed to find them funny.
Bonkers Andy Walker, 50, ordered the Wizard of Oz style shoes for wife Julie, 47, after claiming she had a ‘ridiculous obsession’ with footwear.
But it turned out she wasn’t so keen on the huge heels which Andy bought for £500 from a company which sells old props.
He put them on eBay last week – and thankfully made his money back in the online auction when they sold for £510 on Monday night.
Scrap merchant Andy said: “I spotted them in a factory and thought it would make a funny scenario for the wife.
“She always asking for new shoes and I just thought this might shut her up.
“We have a laugh with each other and I just thought how funny it would be because of her ridiculous obsession.
“But then I just got a phone call off her shouting ‘what are these in my garden?’
“I just told her they weren’t mine they were Dorothy’s but she wasn’t having any of it.”
The enormous shoes were delivered to the couple’s home in Latchingdon, Essex, last month, attracting bemused onlookers following the red brick road beside them.
They were originally made for a promotion at posh store Harrods in London in 2009.
Andy said: “After they’d been placed down we had several people walking by just looking and taking photos, which isn’t very surprising.
“My wife goes, ‘what are they stopping outside for?’ And I tell her the 14ft pair of shoes you’ve got out there obviously.”
“It’s not something you’ll see every day in a quiet neighbourhood.”
In his eBay post, Andy wrote: “These shoes are a one off pair of 14 foot long by 7 feet high ruby slippers that were made for the world famous department store Harrods to mark the anniversary of “the wizard of oz” in 2009.
“They have been all over the web on news site’s when i bought them for my wife as a joke!
“Please note all the profit from a hopeful sale will go to the Great Ormand street kids hospital.”
Andy added: “I ended up thinking about Great Ormond Street and how they had taken great care of my brother who died of leukemia a long time ago, and thought that these could fetch a really good price to give away to them.”
