The advent of the mobile phone has brought a host of lost and found stories to Brighton police who have found themselves inundated with the cellular accessories.

One of the latest includes a man who couldn't believe his eyes when his slimline mobile phone disappeared into the sea from the Palace Pier, in Brighton.

He told police: "I dropped it and watched it slip perfectly between two floorboards without touching the sides. I couldn't believe my bad luck - it was a one in a million."

Roland Galway of the John Street police station said: "Every second call to our lost property department is about mobile phones.

"The man who lost his on the Palace Pier had no chance of finding it washed up on the beach...it sleeps with the fishes, I'm afraid."

Nearly 4,000 phones have been lost in the past four years. Less than half are reunited with their owners and the rest are auctioned for charity.

Mr Galway said: "People drop them down drains, leave them in taxis, or lose them while dancing in clubs.

"We have traced some losers by calling phone numbers stored in the memories. But most mobiles are locked."

The police advise owners to insert landline numbers or post codes inside their phones.