A woman from Costessey has praised the man who found and returned her stolen bike after her garage was broken into.

Eastern Daily Press: Melanie Macrow had her bike stolen when her garage was broken into. Photo: Courtesy of Melanie MacrowMelanie Macrow had her bike stolen when her garage was broken into. Photo: Courtesy of Melanie Macrow (Image: Melanie Macrow)

Melanie Macrow, 53, who lives on Dereham Road, reported a garage break-in to Norfolk police on Thursday, January 24.

Mrs Macrow said someone gained access to her property by climbing over her tall metal gate and then proceeded to break into her garage and steal a Boardman bike and an orange chainsaw.

Eastern Daily Press: The stolen bike was found by Luke Yallop dumped in Costessey Woods. Photo: Luke YallopThe stolen bike was found by Luke Yallop dumped in Costessey Woods. Photo: Luke Yallop (Image: Luke Yallop)

Mrs Macrow reported the break in to the police and also posted what had happened on Facebook, asking for people to look out for her stolen items.

Shortly after the break-in Luke Yallop, 22, was walking his grandmother's dog for her in Costessey Woods when it chased a squirrel into the bushes where he found a discarded bike.

Mr Yallop said: 'I'm into cycling myself and I thought the bike was too nice to have just been abandoned there. I couldn't just leave it there so I reported it to the police and then made a post on Facebook asking if anyone recognised the bike.

'Within 10 or 15 minutes the daughter of the owners got in touch and then they called me and were able to collect their bike from me.'

Mr Yallop said he also recently experienced a break-in, at his Drayton home in which he had a number of bikes stolen.

He said: 'To be on the other end of that situation and to be able to give someone their bike back makes me feel better about what happened to me.'

Mrs Macrow said that Mr Yallop's good deed 'restored her faith in people a bit'.

She said: 'I'd never met this young man and he went out of his way to get our bike back to us. It was a really decent thing to do.'

A spokesperson for Norfolk police confirmed that they were investigating the break-in which they believed took place between 5.30am and 5.30pm on Thursday, January 24 - and that enquiries were ongoing.

They are appealing for any witnesses with information to contact 101 quoting crime reference 36/5825/19.