Opticians burglar found head first in wheelie bin

Nov 14 2009 by David Black, The Journal

A BUNGLING burglar who broke a shop window and stole several pairs of glasses was found by police upside down in a wheelie bin just around the corner, a court was told.

Hapless Michael George Midgley, 22, made a real spectacle of himself in the night-time smash and grab raid at an opticians in Hexham, Northumberland.

He was found lying head first in the rubbish bin clutching six pairs of glasses in his hand, and with shards of broken glass on his clothes. Midgley was discovered by police officers who had been called out by a local resident to the town centre in the early hours of the morning in July this year.

They saw that a window had been smashed at the nearby Pennington’s opticians shop in Market Place. There was a display case and some of its contents lying on the road.

Midgley, of Redwell Road, Prudhoe, was arrested and interviewed but refused to make any comment. Finger printing and forensic testing carried out on his clothing linked him to the damaged window. At Tynedale magistrates’ court he admitted burglary and the case was adjourned for pre-sentence reports.

Claudia Thompson, defending, said there was no CCTV evidence to prove Midgley had smashed the window. He pleaded guilty, not because he thought he had broken it, but because the forensic evidence showed he had been in close proximity to the broken glass. He only had vague recollections of the events of that night, and thought he had probably leant in through the broken window and taken the frames.

Yesterday shop owner Madeleine Pennington said the incident had caused nuisance and damage for the business, but she and staff had also been able to see the funny side.

“I can only think that he took the glasses, threw them away and then, realising they might have value, went into the wheelie bin after them. We have had a laugh about and imagined a cartoon of him with his legs sticking up out of the bin.

“He couldn’t get away with it because there were shards of glass in his jumper when he was found in the bin. The police came and boarded the window up during the night and the whole thing was a bit of a nuisance.

“As far as I know the police were called to a man lying upside down in a wheelie bin and when they got him out he was clutching spectacles. They then noticed that the window in the shop had been broken.”