Joe has had a bad day. He couldn’t find his football kit, his friends laughed at him when he read out loud in class and he scored an own goal in football because he got his left and right muddled up. After school, he ends up at widowed Granny Sal’s house who lives on the other side of the street. Joe’s noticed Gran has been getting very forgetful recently and he and his Mum is worried about her especially when she gets lost and leaves the gas on… After tea, Gran tells him that she went to the bank this morning to get her weekly housekeeping money, when masked raiders came in and held them all hostage at gun point. When the police came, Gran says must have picked up someone else’s shopping bag. When she got home, she found lots of money. Not knowing what to do with it, she hid it in granddad’s secret hiding place – he never trusted the bank. Joe phones the police to tell them Gran’s mistake but Mr Percival, the parrot Gran inherited from the deceased Mrs Taggett and is going to sell on eBay, interrupts the call and all Joe gets is a ticking off for wasting police time. As his dad ran off with the barmaid from the Dog and Duck pub, Joe is the ‘man of the house’ so he has to keep Gran safe. Together they go on the run taking Mr Percival with them. They head off for granddad and Granny Sal’s caravan on Gull Island. They go by train and boat with, they think, the police hotly in pursuit. Mum, Marilyn, phones the police when Joe doesn’t get in touch – he hasn’t got a mobile and can’t find a phone box. Joe thinks the police are on to them but it turns out they are onto the real thieves…the Turkey Shed Gang led by the notorious Nora Lovett – who are also heading for the island. The climax comes when Mr Percival saves the day by saving Joe from Nora Lovett’s clutches. Gran, who has been trying to tell Joe all along, that she’s remembered finding grandad’s money in the secret hiding place and she was trying to pay the money into the bank all along, get rescued. All is well in the end as the granddad’s money is going to buy Joe’s Mum a little car and they are all going off to somewhere hot for a holiday…and Mr Percival is not being sold on eBay…well how could Granny Sal sell him now?