BURGLARY victim Saima Shakeel said: "He might have done anything. He might have hurt my children. He might have had a weapon. That was the scary thing."

Saima, 32, her husband and their three young sons were asleep when a burglar reached through an open window at their home in Levenshulme and grabbed a bag.

It contained a passport, a flight ticket to Pakistan, photographs and other documents.

Pcs Adam Smith and Andy McKinley were attending the crime scene as part of their work in the burglary unit based at Longsight police station.

But they were in for a pleasant surprise, as the bag had been returned along with everything inside. A passer-by saw it abandoned in a field and returned when they saw the address on one of the documents.

Pc Smith said: "It's the best part of the job, seeing valuables returned."

Saima said: "We were very happy. We never thought we would get it back again. It was a lesson for us."

The officers also visited an empty rental property in Longsight, where burglars had ripped out the copper piping, which can fetch £2.50-a-kilo from a scrap-metal merchant.

Door-to-door enquires revealed three other empty houses had also been hit.

A team of eastern European criminals had squatted in the properties and took their time ripping out copper piping and boilers, neighbours said.