Suspected thief ‘rumbled by the weather’ after police follow snowy footprints
Police have snared a suspected thief after tracing his footprints in fresh snow.
Pcs Dylan Middlemiss and Meggan Rutherford were called out to a report of suspicious activity at an address in Spennymoor, County Durham, just after midnight on Friday.
After a brief survey of the scene, they noticed tracks left in the fresh snow.
The officers traced the footprints and saw their suspect had attempted to get into garages and open car doors.
They also found an abandoned bike by the tracks.
The trail continued and the officers eventually found a man sitting in a parked BMW smoking a cigarette.
Durham Police said, he was ‘blissfully unaware he had been rumbled – by the weather’.
The officers arrested a 45-year-old on suspicion of attempted burglary, theft, vehicle interference, possession of a controlled substance, going equipped for stealing and possession of a bladed article.
He was being held at Durham police station.
A similar situation took place in January, when Lancashire Police officers tried to stop a VW Golf because they suspected it was being driven without insurance.
Instead of stopping, the driver sped away at up to 75mph. Despite this, a chase was called off because of how dangerous the weather was.
But the force’s ‘eagle-eyed officers’ soon spotted a set of footprints which linked two men to the car they had seen earlier.
The men, aged 33 and 34, were arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving, drug-driving and failing to stop for police.
Lancashire Police joked that while the cold weather ‘isn’t for everyone’, it ‘certainly did them a favour’.
‘Our thanks go to Mother Nature for her assistance with this investigation,’ the force added.
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