Two hero coppers came to the rescue of a lucky youngster after the delivery van carrying his birthday toys was pinched by thieves.

The Amazon van carrying Milo Cherrington-Cook's Lego set was stolen from outside his home in Heath End Road, Bexley, the day before his fourth birthday.

The driver was out of the vehicle and just about to deliver Milo's present when someone reportedly jumped in and drove off with it.

The vehicle was found abandoned in Lullingstone Avenue, Swanley, just 20 minutes later at 3.20pm on May 20.

Luckily for Milo, when the driver spoke to police he was still clutching the birthday boy's parcel.    

Kent Police DC Paul Oliver and a colleague thought they would make sure at least one of the parcels the driver had been carrying got to its destination on time. 

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The birthday boy gets stuck into his present.

Milo's mum Jayne, 40, told News Shopper: "The doorbell rang about 8.30pm and it was two plain clothed officers outside.

"I opened the door a bit warily, especially when they asked for Milo Cherrington-Cook.

"I just suddenly thought 'he's only three, what can he have done?'

"I wondered what he had been up to when he'd been at nursery."

But the mother-of-one needn't have worried as the two officers were just there to deliver the £20 toy, which had been sent all the way from Devon by Jayne's best friend Clare Wilkinson.

Come the following morning Milo, who goes to Dimples Day Nursery in Dartford, was tearing the wrapping off his new set - which coincidentally featured a Lego policeman and robber.

Jayne, who works as a lifestyle content manager for BT.com, said: "Obviously we laughed at it a lot when we opened it.

"Milo immediately wanted to assemble the policeman and the robber - we just needed an Amazon van and we could have re-enacted the whole thing.

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Milo with mum Jayne. 

"He told me when he grows up he doesn't want to do anything with words like mummy because that's boring, but he would quite like to lock up bad men.

"I just thought it was really nice of the officers - obviously extra nice because it was Milo's birthday.

"The fact they actually bothered to spend the time to do that made me think it was very thoughtful of them and I really appreciated it."

DC Oliver added: "When we spoke to the van driver, he still had an undelivered parcel in his arms so when I returned to the scene in Dartford Heath to make further enquiries, I dropped the parcel off at the recipient's address.

"The lady there was very pleased as it was a present for her boy's birthday.

"Our enquiries to trace the offenders of the robbery are ongoing."