AC Milan's Gattuso Stolen Car Found in Albania

The car, a Range Rover SUV, stolen from the Italian football player three years ago, had Tirana plates and was registered to an Albanian national.

Police are currently investigating how the stolen vehicle entered Albania. Luxury vehicles stolen from Western Europe often end up on Albania's streets after their plates are changed and are then sold on with falsified documents.

A few years back the car belonging to AC Milan legend, Franco Baresi, was also found in Tirana. While, in neighboring Macedonia, the Interior Minister Gordana Jankulovska found herself driving in David Beckam's BMW in 2007, after police impounded it as a stolen vehicle.

Since Albania emerged from its Communist cocoon in 1991 it has been one of the most eager customers for Europe's stolen cars.

Albanians were forbidden to own cars during the austere Stalinist regime of former dictator Enver Hoxha; the most luxurious means of private transportation was a bicycle.

Now, two decades after the collapse of Communism, residents of the Albanian capital, Tirana, say they have more Mercedes-Benzes per capita than people in most other European cities.