Floury footprints led police to burglar's front door

A burglar who targeted his neighbour’s flat was caught after he left a trail of floury footprints from the scene of the crime right to his own front door.



Anthony Rudkin, 48, of Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, was jailed on Friday for two years and five months at Bristol Crown Court after pleading guilty to the burglary on 11 October last year. When his neighbour came home from work he discovered a large bag of flour had been spilt all over the hallway carpet.

Whoever had ransacked his home had walked right through it. Police attended and followed the trail of flour to the door of Rudkin’s address. After knocking on Rudkin’s door, they then discovered more flour along with a pair of gloves and trainers with the same sole pattern as that left in the flour.



PC Dave Cousins said: “Some investigations are incredibly complex and require some thorough and intelligent police work. However, in this case the actions of the victim and the attending officers resulted in Rudkin's quick arrest and seizure of key evidence. Rudkin thought he was being clever by using gloves to cover his tracks but failed to realise he had trodden in flour and led us straight to his front door.”