A SEVEN year-old girl's floods of tears, turned to leaps of delight when her stolen bunny rabbit was returned unscathed.Rachel Lummas was devastated when thieves broke open the padlock on her rabbit Marcus' hutch, and took him away between January 7 and 9.

A SEVEN year-old girl's floods of tears, turned to leaps of delight when her stolen bunny rabbit was returned unscathed.

Rachel Lummas was devastated when thieves broke open the padlock on her rabbit Marcus' hutch, and took him away between January 7 and 9.

She had grown to love the tiny Netherland Dwarf rabbit in the four short months she'd owned him, and her mother Louise told the Evening Star how sad it was that somebody would steal a family pet.

But the very day their story and picture appeared in the paper, she received a phone call from a woman who had read it – and had the rabbit.

Louise, 35, of Lupin Road, Ipswich, said: "The woman said her son had bought a rabbit off a boy who was a friend of a friend. Then she read the story on Saturday afternoon, and got straight on the phone to me.

"We arranged to meet in Robin Drive, and it was definitely Marcus – he has a little white mark under his chin which distinguishes him. The woman couldn't tell me any more details of how her boy got the rabbit, or how much he paid.

"I brought Marcus home and Rachel was so excited, running around and she was over the moon."

She suspects kids had been getting into their garden on several occasions, and will now be installing new security measures including locks and lighting to make sure the theft doesn't ever happen again.