Mum Jessica Gould called police to a Bristol Toys R Us store after staff refused to let her take a bike she bought for her six-year-old son.

Staff told Miss Gould, 28, her receipt for the £129.99 12-gear mountain bike was the wrong colour.

So she and her mother in law, Pamela Kinnane, called police to the Brislington store to sort out the matter.

They paid for the bike – a Christmas present for Miss Gould's son Zak – by credit card, but agreed to return to pick it up at a later date because it needed to be assembled in-store.

But when they went back a week later staff said they could not have the bike because they did not have the green collection receipt.

Miss Gould, a lifeguard from St George, claimed staff would not give them a refund and that a manager refused to help – and hid from them in the shop.

"It was ridiculous. We went to the customer service point and the man went out to the back to find the bike, but came back to say that because we didn't have the green collection receipt they couldn't give it to us," she said.

"I showed them the credit card till receipt we had but they said it wasn't good enough.

"When I asked to see a manager they told me there was no one available, even though I'd seen one in the store.

"An hour later they still wouldn't give me the bike, wouldn't give me a refund and wouldn't let me speak to a manager.

"I was crying with frustration because no one would help. They even had CCTV footage of us buying it, but still wouldn't let us have it."

After a call to the Toys R Us head office led to nothing, Miss Gould called the police.

"I was at the end of my tether, so called 999 and reported the shop for theft," she said.

"When the staff heard the police were coming the manager, Phil Pake, came straight out. He had been there all along.

"I asked him for help but he wouldn't listen and said he didn't care if we called the police."

Even after the police arrived Mr Pake told Miss Gould she would need to go home and look for the receipt before she could have the bike.

When she returned to the store – empty handed – Mr Pake said she could have the bike after all.

"It can't believe it. It was awful and for such a big, national shop it was disgusting," said Miss Gould.

"No one knew what they were doing, I was getting passed from pillar to post and the manager was hiding in the shop, which is disgraceful.

"I can't believe they expected us to walk out without the bike or a refund.

"If it wasn't for the police getting involved we would have lost a lot of money."

A Toys R Us spokeswoman said: "We are taking this matter very seriously and are investigating it fully.

"We understand that emotions got rather frayed in the store, which we can totally understand.

"We are dealing with procedures and the person concerned as part of an internal investigation to ensure that there is no repeat of this type of incident.

"We would like to apologise to the customer, and as a gesture of goodwill give them a £25 gift card."