GILBERT the zebra is home safely after police rescued him from a Southampton garden.

The sculpture, who has become the face of Marwell Zoo’s Zany Zebra trail, has been returned to the zoo in one piece after being stolen from the back of a truck last week.

Marwell Zoo has confirmed that the £2,500 ‘Zany Zebra’ was found by Hampshire Constabulary in a back garden in Shirley last night.

Now he has been picked up by zoo staff from Southampton Police Station and is back at the zoo.

Gilbert, one of 150 sculptures to be dotted across Southampton for the Zany Zebra trail, was stolen four days ago from the back of a truck in Bassett and thieves appeared to cut through strapping that was being used to secure the 5ft-by-6ft animal.

The disappearance sparked a major appeal on social media by zoo staff, calling to #BringGilbertHome.

Now they have thanked those who joined the search and said the sculpture is back “home and dry.”

The sculpture had been due to visit London Waterloo Station on Wednesday morning last week to promote both the Zany Zebra event and the Southampton region but at around 4am that day the Marwell team discovered that he had been taken from a truck that had been temporarily parked in the Bassett area of Southampton.

Upon his safe return Gilbert is expected to be put on display outside the membership cabin at the zoo until he joins his friends in Southampton for the art trail around the city.

Security tags are also expected to be added to all the sculptures this week as a deterrent against future thefts.

A spokesperson for Marwell Zany Zebras said: “We are so grateful to everyone for their support and everyone who called with leads of sightings and want to thank Redbridge Neighbourhood Beat for reuniting him with us.

“Now Gilbert has returned home, he can get back to his Twitter account and you can follow him here @GilberttheZebra.”

A spokeswoman for Hampshire Constabulary said that investigations into the theft were ongoing and no one had been arrested.

She said: “We can confirm that officers found Gilbert in a back garden in the Shirley area of Southampton yesterday evening.

“Investigations are ongoing to find out exactly how Gilbert got there.

"We would like to thank the public for their help in sharing the appeal to find Gilbert.”