An 8-year-old boy and his 9-year-old cousin witnessed a driver back into a parked car on their way home from school in January and then helped track down the perpetrator, German police announced on Thursday.

The pair watched as a woman crashed into a parked car, doubled back to survey the damage, and then drove off without leaving her details.

The budding detectives rushed home to tell their parents and drew a detailed map of the crime.

Police in the small western German town of Oer-Erkenschwick interviewed the boys and, thanks to their meticulous information, tracked down the offender a few days later.

"If I'm to be honest, the sketches of my colleagues often do not look better," a police officer told German tabloid "Bild."

aw/sms (dpa, Bild)