A dog that was inside a Volvo stolen from a car wash has been reunited with its owners.

Kirsty Smythe and her husband David thought they might never see Irish Terrier Connor again after a thief drove off with the £19,000 car.

The man had pressed the emergency-stop button as Mrs Smythe, 33, sat inside the car wash.

She left the keys in the ignition as she got out to investigate. While she was in the shop explaining, the thief leapt into the car and sped off with two-year-old Connor asleep in the back.

Now Connor has been reunited with his owners thanks to the sharp thinking of a police inspector who heard Mrs Smythe make an appeal on radio for her dog's return.

The officer remembered taking a stray dog matching Connor's description to Battersea Dogs Home.

Mrs Smythe, of Highfields, Forest Row, near East Grinstead, said: "It was just incredible when we looked through the bars of the cage and it was him. It was an overwhelming rush of elation. "

Mrs Smythe said a woman in Bexley Heath had been walking her two dogs on Sunday when Connor followed them home. Although he would not come in the house she fed him and later took him to the police.

She and her husband David, 53, are convinced the thief dumped Connor shortly after he stole the car from the Esso Garage in Station Road, East Grinstead, on Thursday afternoon. The thief even took off Connor's tag.

Mrs Smythe, an operations manager for British Airways at Heathrow, said: "He was starving when the woman found him. All he has done since then is sleep but he is more lively today.

"He's exhausted. Goodness knows where he has been and what he has been doing. He has had a bath because he was absolutely filthy and he will just be getting lots of cuddles and attention now.

"We are just over the moon. We don't really care about the car."

Mr Smythe said: "It was absolutely unbelievable. We got the call he was at Battersea and had a very fraught drive through London Bank Holiday traffic, always anticipating it might be him but aware it might not be. The relief we felt when we got there was fantastic."

The man who took the car, a silver Volvo V40, licence plate W995 NNU, was described as in his 20s, very tall and pale-faced. He was wearing a baseball cap.