A YOUNG woman from Jerusalem who lost her bag and its precious contents while visiting the Lake District has praised the two men who returned it safely to her.

Sara Frohwein, 24, said she cried herself to sleep after realising she had mislaid a fabric tote "full of valuable and sentimental items" - including a prayer book, a gift from her brother - during a family trip to the crazy golf at Bowness.

The bag was handed in to South Lakeland District Council lake warden Martin Dodgson, who turned detective and did "a bit of a Sherlock Holmes job" by following up clues in the bag and phoning the police, the Embassy of Israel and, eventually, Sara's mum in Israel, to track down the bag's owner.

Sara, a web designer, told the Gazette: "Words fail me to express gratitude to Mr Dodgson for returning the misplaced bag with everything intact. This gesture of goodwill is extremely praiseworthy."

Lake warden Martin explained: “The lad from the pitch-and-putt brought the bag down to us and I had a look inside to see if there were any clues about who it may belong to.

“There was a lot of valuable stuff in there - a camera, purse, credit cards, cash, an iPhone and what looked like presents. I tried calling the police and then the Israeli embassy in London, because there was an Israeli ID card in there, but no-one could help."

Martin found a piece of paper with some phone numbers on, and eventually spoke to Sara's mum Debby, in Israel, and later her grandmother in Manchester, where Sara had been staying.

Martin described Sara as "gobsmacked" that he had tracked her down. "She was due to fly home a couple of days later and she was in tears because she was so happy we’d found the bag. They all came up and we were able to give her back her bag.

“It was a bit of a Sherlock Holmes job, but I was determined to do what I could to help get the bag back to her. I knew from what was in there that it’s not the sort of stuff you’d want to lose.

“All our work as lake wardens is about looking after lake users and we pride ourselves on our customer service, so if she has left with a good impression of the council staff and people in the Lake District then that’s no bad thing.’’