SCF TIP: Trying to Return a Stolen Item? Don't Go Back to the Store You Stole it From!

Courtest of IC Birmingham

A DIM-WITTED diamond bandit was caught red-handed - when he tried to sell a stolen £8,000 sparkler back to the same jeweller.

The two-carat ring was stolen from DD Jewellers, in Birmingham city centre, yesterday at about 10am by a scruffy gem crook who posed as a rich customer.

An hour later, a man matching his description walked into the jeweller's sister store in Sparkhill with a woman to try and sell the same ring back to them. But the eagle-eyed member of staff spotted the exclusive piece of jewellery and tricked the crook into waiting while police were called.

He was left dumbfounded when police arrived at the store in Stratford Road minutes later to arrest him on suspicion of handling stolen goods. "Why he just didn't choose another jeweller in the high street, Heaven only knows," said a spokesman for the firm.

"We were so lucky he happened to walk into the store here. Because it was quite an exclusive ring and our member of staff picked it up straight away.