Her phone was stolen. Then a strange man posted a selfie on Facebook.

Just weeks after her phone was stolen this Melbourne woman was dumbfounded when a strange man posted a selfie on her Facebook page.

For Melbourne woman Nicola Shelton Valentines Day this year left her no reason to celebrate.

She was in Byron Bay with friends when her bag was stolen with her phone, wallet and credit cards inside.

Nicola thought she would never see her phone again. She reported it missing to police and returned home to Melbourne.

So it was a shock when on Wednesday her boyfriend called her at work asking why she was posting pics of a strange man to Facebook.

She told The Daily Mail that her boyfriend asked “why are you posting photos of these boys on your Facebook page?”‘

When she looked there smiling at her from her news feed was a man she had never seen before.

The image was of a man on a beach smiling at the camera while another man in the background climbed over rocks. Nicola immediately thought that this man must be the thief who had stolen her phone so she changed the subject to “This is the person who has my iPhone”.

‘”I was absolutely dumbfounded. At first when I re-shared photo I didn’t think anything would come from it”

“But people were messaging me and wishing me luck, people I didn’t know, it was bizarre.”

As the message was shared Nicola became even angrier “Give me my phone back you slimey pathetic individual!” she wrote.

But social media triumphed and the man in the photo soon saw that his pic was being bounced around so he messaged Nicola on Facebook. He told her he had bought her phone off someone else and then returned it to the police.

Nicola says she can’t believe the traction of social media.

She posted on Facebook “Thanks everyone for your help! I just got a call from Byron bay police saying my phone has been handed in! I really appreciate it!!”