A man has been reunited with the car he lost after running the Manchester marathon, thanks to a concerned local samaritan.
Jason Matthews, from Wolverhampton, said he could not remember where he had parked his black Saab 93 Sport and spent hours scouring the streets around Salford Quays, Greater Manchester, searching for it.
Matthews said he was overwhelmed when a local resident, Adam Coppin, decided to help him after reading about his case in the press. “I was totally relieved and it’s put my mind to rest,” the 40-year-old told the Manchester Evening News. Everything that goes on in the world now, and then somebody anonymous comes out and does something like this. It definitely gives you more faith in humanity.”
Matthews, who works as a delivery driver for a builder’s merchants, had parked his car near Old Trafford stadium on the morning of the marathon on 19 April. He said he even re-walked some of the 26-mile marathon course to find the car, but was unsuccessful.
“I came back up with a friend on the following Sunday to look for it again. We spent the whole day driving around Trafford Park, but when we couldn’t find it I was resigning myself to the fact it was gone then,” he said.
Coppin, 32, said he had two days off from his job as a technical adviser and was happy to bring a bit of good news to somebody. He said: “I read the article and had a rough idea where [the car] might be. I pinpointed a few areas on Google Maps and just thought I’d head out looking. I thought it would take me the whole two days.” It took him 30 minutes.
Matthews intends to run the marathon again next year.
