ILMINSTER NEWS: Chris and a bag of flour helps to catch a burglar

WATCHING TV super sleuths like Columbo and Poirot paid dividends for an Ilminster man when he used some of his own detective work to help police snare a burglar.

Chris Stuckey works at Sweet Surprise in Silver Street which acts as a café and sweet shop but also provides a training centre for adults with learning difficulties where they are taught skills such as cooking, computing and making things which can be sold in the store.

But Chris was left distraught when somebody broke into the premises at 2am on a Monday morning.

PHOTO - TOP: Chris Stuckey (centre) with TV detectives Columbo and Poirot.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Sweet Surprise in Silver Street, Ilminster.

It was not until a few days later that Chris spotted £250 was missing while cashing up and his heart sank fearing a break-in.

He looked through the shop’s CCTV and found that there had been an intruder who had gained entry and had hid his identity by wearing a sheet over himself.

“My stomach sank when I found the money missing,” he said. “Ilminster is such a small town and everyone knows what we do here. So for this to happen wasn’t a nice feeling.”

The CCTV footage was handed to police, but without any real evidence or clues there was not much hope of catching the offender.

But Chris was fearful that if the burglar could get in once, they might try again. So he came up with a cunning plan to prevent the burglar covering his tracks if he returned.

“You always see these CSI programmes where they catch people through footprints so I put some flour down on a couple of steps he’d have to go over to get into the building,” said Chris.

Sure enough, a week later at 5am on the following Sunday morning the intruder struck again and stole an expensive games console and other items from Sweet Surprise’s computer room.

PHOTO - RIGHT: Chris Stuckey on the BBC show Caught Red Handed.

Chris went to check on the building later that day and discovered the break-in – but he also discovered footprints in the flour.

This time the intruder was not so cautious and his face was clearly caught on CCTV. The pictures were shared among local police stations and it was not long before an officer from Yeovil came up with a name.

A 36-year-old man was arrested and admitted the burglaries and was later sent to prison for 11 months.

Chris said: “I was told by an officer that the footprints in the flour were used to identify the person that had broken in – so it must have helped somewhere along the line.”

The story was aired on TV on Tuesday (January 10, 2017) morning on the BBC 1 programme Caught Red Handed presented by Dom Littlewood.

Sweet Surprise was opened around seven years ago by Jane Morgan and she said that the break-ins had caused “huge disappointment and sadness” because of those who had been effected by the crimes.

The intruder had been able to get in because of a faulty locking mechanism on a door. That has now been replaced while other security measures have also been installed.

If you want to see the programme featuring Sweet Surprise – click on this link and go to about nine minutes in: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b088nwqx/caught-red-handed-series-5-episode-17 .

PHOTO - ABOVE: The footprint in the flour.

PHOTO - ABOVE: Chris Stuckey views the CCTV coverage where the burglar looks up at the camera.

Tags:
News.