I found me car !

Eric King has been reunited with his car — seven months after forgetting where he parked it. Absent-minded Eric, 57, left his black X-reg Ford Focus in a space in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, last February so he could walk into the town centre.

But when he had finished his sightseeing trip he couldn’t remember the name of the residential road he had parked the car in or where it was. Eric searched for the £3,000 motor for four hours before catching a coach back to his home over 60 miles away in Milton Keynes, Bucks. He reported the Focus missing to police but could not make an insurance claim as it had not been stolen.

He returned to Bury St Edmunds 10 times to look for his motor, often booking himself into bed and breakfasts overnight — and lost two stone tramping the streets in his quest. He finally got the car back this week after it was reported abandoned where he had left it — in Blackbird Drive on the Moreton Hall estate.

Two neighbours both assumed the car left outside their homes belonged to the other, eventually alerting the local council when they realised neither was the owner.

St Edmundsbury Council officials notified a delighted Eric, who caught a coach back to the town and was taken to his car. ts road tax had expired but the car was undamaged apart from a flat battery — and started first time with jump leads.

Plane enthusiast Eric had only stopped in the town on the way back from a show at nearby Rougham Airfield. Last night he said: “I had almost given up hope of finding the car again but I knew it must be there somewhere. In future I’ll make sure I park in places I know I can find.”

Council officer Andrew Harvey said: “We got an e-mail about this abandoned car. I remembered Mr King had been in contact in February to report he had lost one. We were delighted to reunite him with it rather than towing it away to be crushed.”