A gold medal stolen during a burglary at the home of former heptathlete Kelly Sotherton has been recovered from a postbox, police have confirmed.

The medal, won by Sotherton at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, was dumped in the pillar box within 24 hours of a media appeal on BBC1’s Crimewatch programme.

The medal was among several personal items stolen from the retired athlete’s Sutton Coldfield home overnight between February 17-18 as she slept upstairs.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said a postal worker found the gold medal while emptying a postbox at the junction of Springfield Road and Fowler Road in Sutton Coldfield yesterday.

In a posting on her Twitter account, Sotherton, who retired in 2012, informed her 43,000 followers: “My medal was found in a postbox the morning after @BBCCrimewatch... what a great result! #found.”

Other items, including further medals, have yet to be traced and detectives are still appealing for information.

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