A woman who was locked inside a John Lewis car park while delivering a parcel said she wants to stop others from making the same mistake.

Renee Sears, who lives in Marlow, drove the short distance from her home to the John Lewis car park in High Wycombe on the evening of Saturday, February 3, to drop off a parcel she had recently sold on Vinted at the In-Post mailbox on the side of the store. 

After depositing the package at the end of the dark car park, Renee tried to drive back out but found that the gate had been pulled down and padlocked, with only a pedestrian exit remaining open. 

As it was just a 10-minute drive from her home, Renee didn't think to check her phone battery or take her purse before heading off.

When she realised she was stuck, her mobile had just enough charge to make it halfway through a phone call with her son and cut out just after she asked him if he could pick her up.

She abandoned her car and stood by the pedestrian entrance to the car park while waiting uncertainly to see if her son was free to drive over - all the while feeling frightened at the implications of being alone in a dark and secluded area on a Saturday night.

"When I walked back to the gate, it did say that the car park would close 30 minutes after the store, but it was in small lettering and I assumed, because it was advertised as a 24-hour parcel drop-off, I'd be able to drive in and out.

READ MORE: Everything we know so far as police investigate attempted murder

"I spoke to a manager at John Lewis a few days later and she said it had just been bad luck, that the security guard had driven around and hadn't seen me. But it's an isolated area - I felt very vulnerable all on my own in the dark and I couldn't help thinking, 'What if it was a mother and child who got stuck here in a similar situation?'"

Renee said she thought it was poor planning to install a 24-hour parcel drop-off in a limited-hours car park which, at the very least, should have clear messaging both on the gate and online to deter drivers from dropping off packages outside the store's opening hours. She also wants to prevent others from having the experience she did.

"I was really frightened standing alone on the roadside in the dark. I had no way of getting home or calling for help. Fortunately, my son did come for me, but I had to wait for a while in the dark and the cold - it was an awful experience."

A spokesperson for John Lewis said Renee had entered the car park immediately after closing checks had been completed but before the gates had been locked, adding that she was provided with a complimentary drink upon returning on Sunday morning as a goodwill gesture.

They also said: "The safety of our customers and Partners is our absolute priority, and we were so sorry to hear about our customer's experience. We've introduced additional security steps to prevent this from happening in the future."