A pair of thieves tried to negotiate with police over what they should be charged with after they were caught breaking into a busy Dundee office building.
Reece Hunt and Lee Armstrong donned heavy orange gloves to avoid leaving DNA or fingerprints at Dundee’s Figure 8 Consultancy Services.
But the hapless duo didn’t realise they were being watched by people in neighbouring properties as they broke in.
Police were called and Hunt and Armstrong immediately held up their hands and said a stolen laptop computer had been stashed in a rucksack.
Armstrong told officers: “I’m not a child. I’m fully aware that I shouldn’t have been breaking into a building.
“A charge of breaking and entering would be fair. A charge of theft wouldn’t.”
Accomplice Hunt, 18, said: “That’s my bag. There’s a laptop inside it. Nothing else. We’re just being stupid.”
He told the officers Armstrong had told him to put the computer in his bag.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard Armstrong had previously served time in prison in connection with assault and robbery.
Hunt, 18, of Adamson Court, and Armstrong, 23, of Landsdowne Court, both Dundee, pleaded guilty to breaking into commercial premises in Whitehall Street and stealing a laptop.
George Donnelly, representing Armstrong, said: “I ask the court accepts this was a one-off, silly, silly escapade.”
Sheriff Lorna Drummond QC imposed community payback orders on both men – with 80 hours unpaid work for Hunt and 130 hours for Armstrong.
She said: “Breaking in to any premises is always serious.”
