A GARAGE in the Cotswolds has gone nuts after staff discovered that a mouse's personal snack stash was the reason a woman's car was not running properly.

Staff at DPE Autosport in Poole Keynes, near Kemble, were baffled when they found hundreds of peanuts under the bonnet of an elderly customer's car.

The woman had brought it in to the garage complaining that it was not running properly.

But when garage owner David Evans and member of staff Helen Plaister inspected the vehicle, they were "gobsmacked" to find a huge bag's worth of peanuts, supposedly stashed by a hungry mouse.

"The lady whose car it is had obviously been feeding the birds and a mouse had stashed them in the car," said Helen, who has worked at the firm for five years.

Helen added that she had never seen anything like this before.

"It was quite fascinating," she said. "When we took the air filter lid off we were just gobsmacked."

The elderly woman who owns the car did not wish to make a comment to the Standard.