Ann Key, aged 62, was devastated when a thief snatched the urn containing her dead mum May Burbeary's ashes from a Sheffield cemetery earlier this month.

The thief grabbed a bag containing the urn from a car parked at Intake Cemetery before making off through a hedge. Police believed the offender did not know what was in the bag and thought he might abandon it when he realised.

And it seems they might just have been right, as the urn turned up just a few streets away from the Mansfield Road cemetery.

Ann, who lives at Hunters Bar but is on holiday, was told the good news over the phone: "I got a call from bereavement services to say a gentleman walking his dog had found the bag in a hedge just a few streets from the cemetery," she said.

"When they told me I just cried and cried - relief is not the word for what I am feeling.

"I know my mum is dead but up until now I could not stop thinking about her, wondering where she was and feeling guilty that I had not been able to lay her to rest alongside my dad."

May was 89 when she died in June.

Ann and her family took the urn to Intake to be buried in a family plot containing the remains of May's parents and her husband Frank.

It was while the family waited to carry out the burial service that the urn was snatched from a car belonging to the council's bereavement services team.

"We were absolutely devastated at the time so I can't thank the gentleman who found the urn enough," said Ann.

"It was my birthday on Monday and when I blew out my candles I made one wish - to find mum. Now it has come true and I couldn't be happier - this is fantastic news."

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