Bungling burglar caught red (and tattooed)-handed
Distinctive tattoos helped secure a two-year jail term for a man who stole £10,000 worth of stock from a Chichester retailer.
About 9am on Saturday 12 October, staff at Dartagnan in North Street discovered the store had been broken into overnight and a quantity of designer clothing was missing.
Police launched an investigation and CCTV showed a person’s arm reach through a smashed first floor window at the premises.
The suspect used a hook on a stick to drag a clothes rail closer to the window. He then hooked items of clothing from the rail out of the window.
Watch the video below on how the burglar was caught on CCTV, with his distinctive tattoos giving him away:
No other body parts were captured in the footage, however detectives noticed the suspect had distinctive hand tattoos.
He also managed to drop the wooden stick, which was seized by crime scene investigators and submitted for forensic analysis. This resulted in a positive DNA hit for Christopher Redmond, who has a history of similar offences.
The 29-year-old, of Upper Bognor Road, Bognor, was arrested and found to have tattooed hands which matched those in the CCTV images. He was subsequently arrested and charged with burglary.
Redmond was remanded in custody and appeared before Lewes Crown Court on 19 February, where he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. He was also ordered to pay a £149 victim surcharge.