From Aberdeen to Argentina: How my stolen Ian Wright strip went round the world

It was a prank that lasted for a quarter of a century. Simple yet bewildering for its unsuspecting victim.

It began in 2001 when Kevin Hill went searching for his favourite football top.

As a kid in Aberdeen, he'd grown up as a Celtic fan - something he says that required a thick skin.

His father took him to games in Glasgow and every season, from age five, his parents bought him the latest strip.

Now 47 and living in Dunfermline, Fife, Kevin says his prized possession was one that brought together his two sporting loves.

"As much as I'm a Celtic fan my first footballing hero was Ian Wright," he says.

"I remember him playing for Arsenal and had posters of him all over my wall.

"When I started hearing the rumour that he might be coming to Celtic, it was like my dreams were coming true."

The Arsenal legend was in the sunset of his career when he signed for Celtic in 1999.

It was a fleeting spell at Parkhead that yielded three goals for the former England striker in just eight appearances.

But such was Kevin's affection that long after it was over, the green-and-white hooped jersey remained his go-to match day uniform.

It was particularly distinctive as it featured his hero's name, but not the number 17.

Kevin explained: "The reason it doesn't have a number on the back was because he hadn't actually signed yet and so we didn't know his number when I got it."

So when the strip went missing he was gutted.

Having recently moved to Edinburgh, he assumed that someone had helped themselves during a fairly raucous flat-warming party.

While he had suspicions, he could never identify the culprit.

Over time, however, his anger faded and he'd largely forgotten about it when, years later, an email arrived in his inbox from an account he didn't recognise.

It began: "Hi Kevin, remember me? Yes that's right, it's your Ian Wright Celtic strip."

The message continued: "I hope you aren't mad with me but I decided to embark on a journey of discovery."

When Kevin opened the attached photograph it featured a woman he didn't know on the London Eye holding up what appeared to be his Celtic top to the camera.

"I was just mega confused," he says.

"Running through my mind was, who has done this?

"I mean bravo, it's a really good prank.

"But little did I know there were a lot more emails to follow."

A few weeks later another message arrived.

Once again it contained a photo of a complete stranger wearing Kev's prized possession – this time in Barcelona.

After that the emails kept on coming.

"The next one was Turkey, then Italy and then it went all the way to South America," Kevin recalls.

"Christ the Redeemer was one of my favourite ones.

"It made it all the way [to Brazil] and then down to Venezuela and Puerto Rico and then back up to the USA."

As 2008 gave way to 2009 the messages kept arriving until eventually the email trail went cold. It left Kevin poring over clues for who might be responsible.

"What confused me was how did they keep this going?"

"It wasn't one of my friends globetrotting, from what I could deduce they were handing [the strip] on to someone else and giving them the email address because it was always a different person in the picture.

For another decade the mystery occupied a corner of Kevin's mind.

When he met someone new he'd tell them about the adventures of "Wrighty'". That included his fiancé Cheryl.

What Kevin didn't know that their marriage would become the key to unlocking the secret.

At the wedding reception in late August, Kevin was sitting at a table with his childhood friends from Aberdeen who all started laughing as one of them handed him a parcel.

"When I opened it, I could see it was a Celtic top but then very quickly I saw the white letters of Wright.

"I knew immediately and I just couldn't believe it."

Alongside the strip was a photobook entitled "Wrighty on Tour: 25 years of adventures around the globe"

"It was the best present I could have ever been given."

"And the fact that they kept it going that long just shows how good a friendship group I've got."

Friends since their schooldays, Kris Robertson vividly remembers Kevin's fondness for his Ian Wright Celtic strip.

"He used to wear it all the time. I just remember he was very proud of it. It was his prize possession."

That affection made it the ideal source of payback after Kevin hijacked Kris's emails with the aim of embarrassing him at work.

"It was revenge," says the 48-year-old, smiling.

Revenge that took unlikely inspiration from French cinema.

Part of the plot in the 2001 movie Amelie involves the main character stealing her dad's garden gnome and sending it around the world.

"It was postcards with pictures of all these exotic locations and I thought that's perfect, I've got to do that with his strip."

The first stage of the plan involved asking another one of their other school friends to steal the strip at Kevin's flat-warming party.

Mission accomplished, the next stage of the plan required a fake email address and finding random accomplices while on his travels.

"It had to be people he wouldn't recognise, so I was just asking whoever happened to be standing there could you just hold this strip up and I'll take a photograph. That was the game really."

Kris says: "I had to take my time."

"I think Benicassim music festival was the first place I took it, but if I'd sent him a photo from there he would have sussed me straight away because he knew I was there.

"So I had to make sure there was quite a long delay between going places and then sending the emails."

As the strip racked up the air miles Kris kept drip-feeding the emails to his unsuspecting friend

"At one point I did get an email back [from Kevin] saying I think I've worked out who it is.

"I knew he hadn't and of course I never heard from him again. He was obviously trying to flush me out."

A great prank, however, requires a big reveal. Which, after years of deception, was something Kris agonised over.

"When he announced he was getting married, I thought this is the perfect opportunity."

When the moment arrived Kris says the confused look on Kevin's face was worth it:

"It was really good. I knew he'd appreciate the gag and finally finding out but it was actually a bit of a relief as well. I couldn't keep this going forever."

Kris's mum and dad were among those who helped him build up a bank of photos from around the UK and Europe.

Then in 2008 he took the strip with him to South America where the prank took on a life of its own.

"I met people in Peru and I gave them the strip because they were going off travelling around the world.

"They took it away with them and went to Easter Island with the big stone heads.

They went to Christ the Redeemer in Rio. They got some brilliant photos."

There is, however, a twist – a confession Kris hasn't been brave enough to make until now.

Sometime around 2013 the steady stream of photos he'd been receiving from around the world suddenly stopped.

When he contacted the last person he knew had the strip, they sheepishly confessed to losing it.

"I suppose that's the risk of sending it off around the world with complete strangers."

Kris was determined the prank he'd invested so much time and energy into wouldn't just fizzle out.

So he spent hours scouring the internet for a replacement strip and identical lettering which, in the end, he had to iron on by hand.

"I should apologise yes it was very careless of me to lose [but] a lot of love went back into the replacement."

Which raises the intriguing prospect that more than a quarter of a century on, the original "Wrighty" is out there somewhere, searching for a way home.

This epic tale of love, loss, revenge and reconciliation might still have room for another chapter.