Koi thief stole fish for his mum

A fishkeeper who tracked down his stolen Koi has discovered that his fish were given to the thief's mum as a birthday present.

According to a report from the Lowell Sun Online, Massachusetts fishkeeper Bob Kennedy started searching the ponds in his home town for his fish - $3000 worth of Koi - which had been stolen earlier this week.

Kennedy went to one home and asked the permission of the owner to look in the pond and amazingly found his fish living in it.

The report says that the fish were stolen by a teenager, who has not been named, and were given to his mother as a present.

Sadly, five of his fish had died.

Kennedy was relieved to get the fish back and has placed them in quarantine before returning them to his pond.

He told the Lowell Sun: "They're my friends. They're better than kids because they didn't talk back."