A Mildura man is one of the luckiest around after his parked utility was stolen from Langtree Parade at around 1.30am Sunday.
Police said that the owner, ex Imperials footballer Francis Kelly, had left the keys in the ignition by mistake and had gone to bed on Saturday night.
A few hours later the utility was stolen and driven along Langtree Parade to 13th Street and then turned left into 13th street.
The driver got almost through the Deakin Avenue intersection and stopped in the middle of the South bound Deakin Avenue lane.
Police said that it appeared the driver of the utility was unable to work out how to change the manual gears and simply abandoned it where it was stalled.
Some teenagers nearby saw the vehicle being abandoned and then went over and pushed the utility off the intersection to the side of the road and called police.
When they arrived they found the thieves had also been kind enough to leave the keys in the ignition so they called the owner.
Kelly then came the 300 metres to where his stolen car had been recovered, retrieved it and took it back home.
Police inquiries into the theft are continuing. The utility was not damaged in the incident.