CCTV footage shows Steven McMahon breaking into a Sainsbury’s Local, in Waverley Street, Radford, No (Image: Nottinghamshire Police / SWNS)
A wannabe cat burglar’s numbers were up when he got stuck climbing through the ceiling of a supermarket in an attempt to steal lotto scratchcards.
Staff at a Sainsbury’s Local opened the store at 6am to find a pair of legs dangling from a hole in the shop ceiling.
They dialled 999 and police swooped to arrest Mission Impossible-style raider Steven McMahon who had smashed his way through the ceiling of the store in Radford, Nottingham, in a cloud of plaster and dust.
As the 50-year-old thief lowered himself down to the waist, he became stuck, and started frantically kicking his legs in a panicked attempt to steady himself.
Groceries were sent flying off a shelf nearby with the raider comically left dangling for a few seconds.
He eventually managed to free himself and allegedly went on to steal around £200 worth of National Lottery scratchcards, crisps, washing detergents and food products before fleeing through the fire exit.
CCTV footage (R) shows Steven McMahon (L) breaking into a Sainsbury’s Local, in Waverley Street, Rad (Image: Nottinghamshire Police / SWNS)
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Officers from Nottinghamshire Police arrived within six minutes of the 999 call and found McMahon lurking in nearby Forest Road.
The tracksuit-clad thief was arrested, taken into custody and was behind bars within 24 hours of committing his crime as he pleaded guilty to burglary and was jailed for 22 weeks when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates’ Court last Saturday.
Inspector Liz Gaskin, of the City Central neighbourhood policing team, said: “This was fantastic work by the Response officers who ensured a suspect was swiftly in handcuffs.
“The store was closed at the time of the incident and so did not impact on members of the public.
“However it was an alarming incident for the staff and I’d like to thank them for alerting us to the burglary.
“No one should arrive for a shift to discover a burglar inside their place of work and I hope they are reassured by the arrest.
CCTV footage shows Steven McMahon breaking into a Sainsbury’s Local, in Waverley Street, Radford, No (Image: Nottinghamshire Police / SWNS)
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CCTV footage shows Steven McMahon breaking into a Sainsbury’s Local, in Waverley Street, Radford, No (Image: Nottinghamshire Police / SWNS)
CCTV footage shows Steven McMahon breaking into a Sainsbury’s Local, in Waverley Street, Radford, No (Image: Nottinghamshire Police / SWNS)
“As shown today, we will always offer a robust response when community stores are targeted like this and their shelves ransacked.’
Last month it was revealed that shoplifting offences have surged to a record high with a total of 492,914 offences recorded by police in the year to September.
The Office of National Statistics said it was the highest figure since current police recording practices began for the year ending March 2003.
Police recorded 1.8 million theft offences in the year to September, a two per cent increase driven by shoplifting and a 22 per cent rise in crimes involving theft from a person (146,109).
Knife offences and robberies rose by four per cent each.
The British Retail Consortium has warned that shoplifting is “spiralling out of control” after their research found there were more than 2,000 incidents a day, with staff facing assault, being threatened with weapons, and racial and sexual abuse.
The alarming figures show that shoplifting is getting worse, despite businesses paying a record £1.8billion on prevention tactics such as CCTV, more security guards and body worn cameras.
Some 61 per cent of retailers say the police response to calls for help has been “poor” or “very poor”.
Retailers are also reporting unprecedented levels of violence towards their staff, with the number of incidents involving a weapon more than doubling to 70 per day.