The couple, traveling with their four-year-old daughter, were on their way back to their home in Germany when they pulled over for gas in the coastal city of Pesaro.

Upon filling the tank, the man hopped in his car and drove away, forgetting he left his 30-year-old wife behind when she went to use the bathroom.

The woman, with no money or documents on her, contacted police, who traced her husband to Milan.

He told police he had not noticed his wife was missing because she always sat with their daughter in the backseat