A man from Merseyside has got a £7,000 Colnago bike stolen from him three years ago back – after a fellow cyclist bought it at a car boot sale for £180.

Robert Rix’s custom-built Colnago was taken from his garage in Southport along with another bike in August 2011, one of 250 bikes stolen in the town since April that year, many of the thefts targeting members of Southport Cycling Club.

He resigned himself to never getting the Colnago back, but says last week’s turn of events has “restored his faith in human nature,” reports the Liverpool Echo.

The 66-year-old barber said: “I first got a call on Tuesday morning from the president of Southport Cycling Club. He said ‘there’s a man on the Wirral trying to get in touch with you, give him a ring’.

“I did and he said ‘I think I’ve got your bike’. I thought this is too good to be true. When the bike went I posted it all over the internet.

“Of course this guy bought this bike at a car boot sale in Warrington for £180 and immediately got suspicious and thought his luck was too good to be true.”

The man who had bought the bike searched on the internet and found it belonged to Mr Rix, and reunited him with it.

“It’s an absolutely phenomenal stroke of luck,” said Mr Rix. “This has really restored my faith in human nature.

“The downside is my wife now knows how much I spend on bikes," he added.