How do you catch a thief? If you're one Melbourne surfer, sometimes you can drop right in on the culprit yourself — at a police station.

Ross Moresi was told he'd likely never see his surfboards again after they were stolen from his garage earlier this week.

But the Prahran resident wasn't willing to accept a wipe out so easily and called up any surf shops which trade in second-hand boards, passing on a few photos if they happened to turn up.

That's when Zak Surfboards in Thornbury called him back, saying a man had sold them recently and the store still had his name, licence number and address.