POLICE freed a man locked in a shed in Blackburn -- after he sent a transatlantic distress message via the internet.

Stephen Riley claims yobs bolted the door of his shed while he was inside trawling the world-wide web at about 4am. When he realised he was locked in, he tried desperately to contact emergency services, but with no luck.

Although there is a phone line in the shed -- on which he can connect to the internet -- he had no phone with him and had to resort to cyber-space to find his saviour.

And it eventually came from America.

An embarrassed Mr Riley, 51, who lives in the Higher Croft area of Blackburn, said: "I got on to the homepage of the police and the emergency services, but there is no e-mail address for them. I tried some of the different newsgroups that I go on looking for somebody who was still there at that time of the morning, but had no joy. So I looked on other sites."

Stuck in his reinforced shed, built by his joiner son, Mr Riley logged on to a regular site called ebay.com and went into its chat rooms, where he issued his plea for help: "I am stuck in my shed, call Lancashire Police, this is not a hoax."

The message was picked up from a web-user in America who immediately alerted Blackburn officers.

PCs Ian Thompson and Victoria Warrington were dispatched to his home, where they found a weary Mr Riley last Thursday.

PC Thompson said: "We got the call from America at about 5.30am, which was very unusual. We got to the address and saw Mr Riley waving through the shed door and let him out.

"It was probably the most unusual call-out I have been involved in."

Mr Riley, who said he often goes on the internet at that time of the morning while his wife watches 'rubbish' on the telly, didn't even know who had helped him until the police told him.

He said: "I was gobsmacked when the police said they had been called out from someone in America. It goes to show the power of the internet."

Mr Riley has since logged on the site and left messages thanking his American hero. And he has made contingency plans so he doesn't get locked in again -- he's bought himself a mobile phone.