A FOOTBALL fan was reunited with his wallet yesterday - 30 years after it was stolen by a pickpocket during a match.

Arnold Coleman, 71, was stunned when the wallet was returned to him after being discovered in a garden close to the football ground Ayresome Park, in Middlesbrough.

And he was delighted to find all of the contents he had left in the wallet in 1974 - apart from the money - were still in it.

Mr Coleman, of Berwick Hills, Middlesbrough, was watching Middlesbrough take on Manchester United in the fifth round of the League Cup on a freezing December afternoon when his wallet was snatched.

After taking the cash, the thief must have hurled it into a nearby garden, which is where it lay undisturbed for three decades.

Mr Coleman said: "There was only about £16 in the wallet but that was a lot of money for me at the time.

"I remember it being stolen but it wasn't the contents that I was bothered about, it was the photos, club cards and my driving licence."

Even though the cards for the local Western Social Club and driving licence have been replaced, Mr Coleman is still pleased to see them again.

Mr Coleman and his wife, Freda, 69, were even more delighted when pictures of their now grown-up children fell out of the leather wallet, which was found in Megarth Road, next to where the now demolished Ayresome Park once stood.

The pictures included one of their daughter, Glynis, as a toddler.

The wallet was found by Arthur Thompson, 58, after his decaying shed collapsed.

Once he realised it still contained someone's possessions, he set about tracking down Mr Coleman.

Mr Thompson said: "I thought I would take it to the address inside the wallet and, if he wasn't there then I would take it to the police.

"I was amazed when his neighbour said he still lived there."