Johannesburg - A devoted Bulls rugby team supporter had his rugby tickets for Saturday's Super Rugby match returned to him by police after they were stolen out of his car, according to a report on Friday.

"I couldn't believe that adjutant officer Doc le Grange, who doesn't know me from a bar of soap, had gone to so much trouble to get the tickets to me before the weekend game," Pieter Nel told Beeld newspaper.

Nel, managing director of a mining company in Midrand, had eight rugby tickets in an envelope inside his laptop case.

He left his laptop in the car last week, while he was having breakfast with a client at a Centurion, Pretoria, restaurant. He returned to find his car had been broken into, and the bag and its contents stolen.

Nel reported the incident to the Lyttelton police station, and was contacted on Tuesday by Le Grange, who told him they had recovered two stolen laptops, and an envelope with his name on it from a stolen car in Waterkloof.

Neither of the laptops belonged to Nel, but he was delighted to get his tickets back.

"One hears so many negative things about the police, that it really puts a smile on your face when something like this happens to you," he said.