RELIEVED dog owner Anna Gowthorpe has been reunited with her stolen dog Kimi - after launching a search from the skies.

She went up in her father's two-seater airplane after thieves made off with his Land Rover from farmland near Dunnington with 15-month-old black Labrador, Kimi, in the back.

Traffic police telephoned the family hours later after they spotted a similar dog running loose near the Hopgrove roundabout, near the A64.

Anna and father Chris jumped in to the small two-seater plane he co-owns and flew to the spot, hoping to see Kimi in surrounding farmland.

But despite almost an hour in the air and several false alarms they didn't catch a glimpse of the lost animal.

However, two days later a farmer spotted Kimi running on farmland near Murton, less than a mile away. After three hours of searching the family were reunited

She said: "It's a great relief to get her back. She's exhausted. I don't think she enjoyed the experience too much. We're really pleased that she is safe and well.

"It was very upsetting. She's only really young and she's a member of the family. She's quite timid and probably wouldn't have gone to a stranger.

"She rides everywhere with my dad in the Land Rover. He was only ten yards away when he saw it go with her in the back."

Police said the green Land Rover, which was taken from Dunnington Common on Tuesday at about 5pm, was later recovered on the M1 near Mansfield.

A silver Ford Mondeo, which had been reported being driven suspiciously in nearby Wheldrake only minutes earlier, was also seen in Dunnington at the time of the theft.

A spokesman said officers later stopped a vehicle of the same description in James Street, York.

Three men ran from the vehicle and escaped. It has now been seized for forensic examination.

Anna works as a photographer and her pictures have appeared in the Evening Press.

Updated: 10:51 Friday, August 12, 2005