A TIPPER truck that was stolen during a raid on a construction site was recovered – with thanks to the Gloucestershire Gazette.

The £50,000 Volvo FL6 Hiab truck was stolen from the yard, in Nind Lane, Kingswood, between Saturday evening, August 9, and Monday morning, August 11.

Paul Giles, the director of Wotton Tarpaving Ltd, said the van’s return was “purely down to the picture in the Gazette.”

The story of the missing truck was originally run in the August 21 edition of the Gazette, in which Mr Giles pleaded with members of the public to come forward with any information.

The loss was a devastating blow to the firm, which employs four people, affecting its capacity to work in one of their busiest times of year.

He believed the thieves had targeted the van. Nothing else was taken from the yard apart from a Stihl disc laser cutter saw.

Fortunately, a short while after the truck went missing, on August 24, a friend of a colleague found it and reported it to the police.

Mr Giles said: “I’m absolutely delighted that the van has turned up. Somebody reported the truck to the police after he found it in Patchway and then saw the article in the Gazette.

“It turns out he knew my colleague and that’s how we got it back. When they told me I just felt disbelief really.”

As the keys were missing from the truck, it initially had to be recovered by police and held at a storage facility in Weston-super-Mare.

The truck had only travelled about 20km. Diesel had been siphoned from the truck’s tank, but a sat-nav, CDs, and keys to the company’s Ford Transit van were left in the cab.

Mr Giles continued: “I am very pleased, but at a loss as to why they wanted it in the first place.

“Obviously losing something of that size makes a big impact on business, making things very difficult, so it was good to get it back with no damage.”

Business with the firm can now continue as usual. Mr Giles is in the process of dealing with his insurance company.