Theif steals car and old couple

[Wizzo]

A thief got slightly more than he bargained for when he stole a car only to find an elderly couple in the back seat.

The unnamed man saw that a driver had left the keys in the ignition of his motor while he parked up in Sunderland.

Seizing the opportunity, he jumped into the car and sped off - probably thinking that nobody had seen him.

He would have got quite a shock then when he looked in the rear-view mirror and saw two rather scared looking ninety-somethings watching him.

"This was an extremely distressing incident, when someone stole a car with two elderly people inside," inspector Sarah Pitt told the Metro.

"Fortunately, the elderly people involved were not injured in any way and the car was abandoned nearby shortly afterwards."

The thief is said to have fled the scene when he realised that he had also stolen an elderly couple and police have made an arrest in relation to the incident.