Image caption The car had been left in the wrong gear so rolled down an incline in the car park

A car reported as stolen from an Australian car park has been reunited with its owner, after apparently parking itself in a closed garage.

Adelaide police say they think the car rolled down an incline in the car park, across a street and into a garage forcing itself under the roller doors.

The door closed behind it and the car remained undetected for 17 days until the homeowners returned from holiday.

Fearing a burglary, they called police, who deduced the curious turn of events.

"Although the roller door was closed, it had been damaged slightly and pushed out of its tracks," a police spokesman is quoted in Australian media as saying.

Police believe that the car had not been left in the parking gear and so rolled through the car park and eventually "forced itself under the roller door, parking perfectly inside the garage where it remained safely under cover for 17 days".

The owner reported the car stolen after he parked it outside a shop in a suburb of Adelaide. Reports say that he had bought the car only two days earlier and left it for just a few minutes.

He told the police that he now recalls hearing a "bang", which may have been the car hitting the garage door, the Associated Press news agency reports.