Burglar caught minutes after theft (From Enfield Independent)

Burglar Colin Reid from Weir Hall Avenue in Edmonton caught minutes after theft in Boundary Road

3:46pm Thursday 17th January 2013 in News By Hermione Wright

A burglar caught just minutes after stealing a laptop has been jailed for four years.

Colin Reid, 34, of Weir Hall Avenue in Edmonton, crept into a ground floor flat in Boundary Road in Wood Green by climbing through an open window at 1am on August 24 and snatched a laptop.

The people sleeping inside were awoken by Reid landing on the floor with a thud before he grabbed the laptop and fled through the front door.

Reid, who is unemployed, was found guilty after a trial and sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court yesterday to four years for burglary and six months, to run concurrently, for being equipped for burglary.

He was stopped in his tracks by members of Haringey’s Proactive Crime Team (PCT) who were travelling in an unmarked police car in Westbury Avenue. They spotted Reid trailing a cable and carrying a laptop.

He started to run when he spotted the officers, but they detained him in Grainger Road, at the bottom of Westbury Avenue.

Their suspicions were heightened when they discovered Reid was equipped with gloves, a screwdriver and a torch.

Just minutes after stopping Reid, the officers received a call on their radios reporting the burglary in Boundary Road.

The criminal, who had previous convictions for residential and non-residential burglaries, was arrested on suspicion of being equipped for theft and burglary and taken to Tottenham Police Station where he was charged.

Investigating officer, Detective Constable Wendy Mason of Haringey Criminal Investigation Department Acquisitive Crime Unit, said: "The officers who spotted Reid carrying the laptop and carried out a stop and search on him before the burglary was even reported did a fantastic job.

“Without their instinct and professionalism, this successful prosecution wouldn't have been possible."

The burglar pleaded guilty to theft on August 25 at North London Magistrates Court after officers found he was also carrying a stolen Oyster card when he was stopped.

He was sent to prison for 14 days for stealing the travel card from a 20-year-old man who was travelling on a bus in Tottenham earlier in the month.