Man thanks a traffic warden

A 78-year-old German man needed the help of a traffic warden who had given him a ticket to find his car after a day of fruitless searching.

German police in Kaiserslautern, south of Frankfurt, say the man parked his car in the town centre before an appointment with his tax adviser and then forgot where he had left it.

After wandering aimlessly for hours, he turned to the police for help.

Authorities searched in vain until late at night.

"We then sent him to a hotel and resumed the search in the morning. We asked our traffic wardens whether they had any clue about the car," a spokeswomen for Kaiserslautern police said.

"Fortunately, one woman remembered putting a ticket on his car."