WHEN Ken Turner lost his wallet running for the Oxford Tube in London, he thought he would never see it again.

But the grandfather is thanking his lucky stars, and the good samaritan from Oxford who posted it back.

Mr Turner, 68, from Nettlebed, said: “On January 26, I was running along the road in Grosvenor Gardens at Victoria for the Oxford Tube.

“We were running late so I didn’t think about holding on to everything in my pockets as we ran.”

When he got on to the bus, Mr Turner put his hand in his pocket but found his wallet was missing.

He said: “I was pretty peeved about the whole thing.

“I immediately rang my bank and cancelled the two debit cards and sat there thinking about what else was in it.”

In addition to the cards, the wallet also contained Mr Turner’s driving licence, senior railcard and other cards.

He said: “I wasn’t sure exactly where I’d dropped it, but it must have been running for the bus, so I didn’t think I’d see it again.

“The next morning I got on the phone to start replacing all the stuff.

“I found out a new licence was £25, a new railcard was £5 and so on. It was going to cost me quite a bit.”

But little did Mr Turner know, a good citizen in London had picked up the wallet and had a bright idea about how to return it.

He said: “The next day, I got a call from a postman in Headington, who asked if I’d been visiting Oxford recently. It turns out my wallet had been found in a postbox in Headington.”

Mr Turner believes someone on the Oxford Tube must have found the wallet in London and posted it when they got home. He said: “It’s obviously too much of a coincidence for it not to have been that.

“One of my cards had my mobile number on, so the postman rang that. I’d pretty much given up on ever seeing it again.”

Mr Turner has now been reunited with the wallet, and thanked both the postman and person who posted the wallet.

He said: “I’m not sure if I’d ever have thought about putting it in the postbox, it seems like quite a logical thing to do.

“I want to say a big thank you to them and if I could return the favour, I would.

“It shows there are some sensible folk still around.”

Royal Mail spokesman Tom Prendergast said: “We are delighted to be able to return the wallet to the owner.”