Jamie Heaslip was shocked to spot a watch he lost years ago in a photo on social media.
The rugby star was given it as a memento after his 2013 Lions rugby tour, but it was stolen a short time after.
Heaslip was tagged in a post on Instagram on a watch collectors page who had thought he sold the watch.
When the sports star saw the post he commented: “Can I ask how you got this? It was stolen off me in November 2013,”
The German-based watch collector claims he bought it on eBay two years ago and has since sold it on.
“Until yesterday, I did not know it was stolen,” he told the Mail.
“I post pictures here on Instagram of watches that I owned. Sharing the love for fine timepieces in the community, as there are many watch collectors around here. And so I decided to share a picture of Jamie’s watch and the whole story started.”
“I’m very sad about this and I already sent Jamie all the information of the seller and buyer of the watch.”
The collector has since removed the post about the Breitling watch claiming he got a number of hurtful messages.
