LITTLEMORE steel worker Peter Jones had a habit of finding stolen cars abandoned outside his home.

Mr Johnson found a blue Ford Corsair dumped at the front of some nearby garages in January 1980 – the fifth stolen car to be left there in a month.

A frustrated Mr Johnson said: "It means the entrance is blocked and people pay through the nose for these garages."

Thankfully he managed to trace the owner after reading a report of the theft in the Oxford Mail.

After being re-united with his car, a relieved Peter Harding of Didcot said: "I'm very grateful. There is a lot of money involved. "I've had to rely on friends to get to work."

The car had been stolen from a multi-storey car park at Cowley Centre in Oxford while he was at work.