A BOY shed tears of joy when his beloved birthday present was returned to him three weeks after it was stolen.

Declan Sleigh, aged 10, was given the bike for his tenth birthday in June before it was grabbed by thieves in a white van last month.

His older brother was using the bike when he and his friends were chased away in Farnworth town centre and the bike was stolen.

His mother, Lisa Smith, made the local PCSO aware of the incident who was able to track down the bike to Declan’s delight.

Lisa said: “He was actually asleep, so I woke him up and he jumped out of bed. He was that happy he cried.”

When she asked Declan why he was crying, he told her: “I’m just happy. I thought I’d never see my present again.”

The PCSO, Derek Thomas, made enquiries in the community which led him to a takeaway whose staff were aware of the incident.

They gave the PCSO the registration number of the van that was seen in the area at the time which was traced to an address in Little Hulton.

Although the resident of that address claimed he did not know anything about the bike, he told the PCSO that he knew someone that does.

PCSO Thomas told the man: “If I call back in 24 hours, it would be nice if the bike was parked up somewhere in your shed or the back of the garden.”

He took the advice on board and the bike was returned to its rightful owner last Wednesday.

A picture of Declan with his damaged bicycle was posted on Facebook leading a member of staff at Decathlon to offer to repair it for free.

Lisa said that she was very grateful for the gesture by Decathlon and will take the bike in for repairs at the weekend.

The mother-of-four said that the incident shocked her but thanked PCSO Thomas for all his help.

She said: "I've lived round the area all my life. It's very, very shocking. I'm just so, so glad it was found."

PCSO Thomas encouraged people to report all crimes to police by calling 101 or 999 in an emergency but said that speaking to a PCSO during a patrol is also worthwhile.

He said: “We've got time to just speak to people. Some people just give us a little bit of a tip off and information. With an awful lot of people these days, they see a lot in the paper about the cuts. People either assume we can’t do anything or they don’t want to waste police time for something that may be perceived as minor. For me it just shows that everything should be reported regardless of what they think."