A MAN suspected of stealing meat and fish worth £70 from a Co-op store at Warrington escaped despite a chase involving PCSO’s and the police helicopter.
PCSOs attempted to stop the man at Sankey railway station in the belief he had stolen property from a nearby Co-op store.
The man made his escape on to the railway line and several officers and the police helicopter assisted in a search for him.
But this was called off as there was no trace of the man.
PCSOs recovered meat and fish worth £70 which was returned to the store.
CCTV monitors were checked and a possible offender identified.
A few hours later, a man matching the description of the alleged offender struck again – this time at Penketh.
Officers again searched the area and the man was tracked down to a local pub.
The man was arrested and meat worth £133 was recovered.
Elusive meat thief dodges helicopter – but caught in pub
44 Comments
4 Comments
Isn’t it just a tad over the top calling out the helicopter for £200.00 worth of meat. Didn’t call it out for the lad who was threatened with a knife and to my mind that was the more serious offence. Surely if they had looked at the cctv first then they would have saved a lot of time and money as they identified the suspect from the cctv, a miracle in itself really.
According to reports in the national press it is cheaper to call out the police helicopter than use additional manpower.
Perhaps that’s because there always seem to be an over abundance of police vehicles sent to incidents where one or at most two are actually needed.
The meat was probably not stolen for eating but more likely to be sold on I suspect.