One Call Stadium burglar caught by DNA from tea towel face covering
A burglar who broke into Mansfield’s One Call Stadium was undone by the very tea towel he used to hide his face during a burglary.
Jamie Harris, 37, stole alcohol, till printers, a computer and three charity tins after breaking into Mansfield's One Call Stadium on the evening of Monday 4 May this year.
Harris, an experienced criminal with multiple burglary convictions to his name, used the towel to hide his face during the break-in and wore rubber gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints.
He was unmasked by officers who used CCTV to track his journey away from the scene after he'd returned a second time early the following morning and removed the distinctive gingham towel from the scene.
Crucially they were then able to access footage that showed Harris throwing the item from a railway bridge to dispose of it.
The item was safely recovered, forensically examined and found to contain saliva belonging to the suspect.
Harris was also linked to the offence by a distinctive Iron Maiden cap he'd worn to commit a previous shop theft.
Harris refused to be interviewed by officers but had little choice to plead guilty to burglary when he appeared at Nottingham Magistrates' court on Wednesday 22 July.
He also admitted to two counts of theft from a motor vehicle in relation to incidents in Mansfield on 24 April and 26 June in St Andrews Street and Avalon Road respectively.
He also pleaded guilty to vehicle interference after an incident in Newport Crescent on 27 June, and possessing a heroin.
Harris, of Beck Crescent, Mansfield, was jailed for 11 months.
PC Simon Ford, of the Mansfield Town Centre Policing Team, said: "Harris is an experienced criminal who went to great lengths to disguise his identity during this burglary.
"Unfortunately for him he underestimated our determination to catch up with him. Thanks to the excellent coverage of the council CCTV network, we were able to retrace his steps after the break-in right up to the point where we threw this vital piece of evidence from a railway bridge.
"After safely recovering this item, we were able to link it to Harris and prove that it had been placed over his mouth for a significant period of time."