Fredrik Sandqvist, 35, could hardly believe his ears when he received a phone call this week informing him that the bicycle, stolen shortly after he bought it in the spring of 1998, had now turned up in the lost and found department of a distant police station.

“I was really astonished when they called,” he told local newspaper Piteå-Tidningen.

Police were able to identify the owner since he had his personal identification number engraved into the frame back when he snapped up the brand new bike for 2,500 kronor ($335).

Sandqvist’s locked bicycle was snatched from outside the wall of a building in Överkalix, a town of 1,000 people near the Arctic Circle where he was studying computer technology at the time.

Now living in Oskarshamn, 500 kilometres south of Gävle, Sandqvist has decided not to renew acquaintances with his former pride and joy.

“I’ve decided to donate it to a charitable organisation in the town,” he said.