A live mouse in a cage, ashes in an urn and a life-size dummy dressed as an old lady were some of the unusual items left in Europcar's rental cars in 2012.

The dummy was discovered in the boot of a Ford Focus and gave the Europcar driver ‘the fright of his life’ – he thought he’d found a body.

It was Europcar's Belfast City Airport branch that found an urn of ashes when a vehicle was returned.

The ashes of a customer's mother had been brought over from South Africa and the customer was relieved to have them back so that she could scatter them at her mother's birth place.

Among the other strange items found this year were two 6x10 ft oil paintings, 30 plants and a hedge trimmer

Unsurprisingly, sunglasses, CDs and loose change are the most common items left in Europcar vehicles.

All of the glasses that go unclaimed are recycled as part of Europcar's ‘Go Green' pledge.