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Shoplifters snared by student cops

Two suspected shoplifters got more than they bargained for when they were confronted by three dozen uniformed police officers outside the store they had just targeted.

The man and woman had walked out of Sainsbury’s in Durham’s Arnison centre with a trolley full of food and booze worth £109 without stopping at the tills.

To their horror, they were surrounded by police who were on a training exercise in the car park.

Just eight weeks into their initial training, the rookie cops from the Durham and Northumbria forces were working on a series of practical exercises.

A Durham police spokesman said: “On seeing the large number of officers in the car park outside the pair abandoned the trolley - straight into the arms of a student officer.

“They ran off, pursued by security staff from the store, towards a car in the car park. They were arrested, taken for questioning and later released on bail pending further inquiries.”

Inspector Andy McMillan, from the Aykley Heads training centre, said: “The shop involved got an almost instant police response and the trainees on the site a first-hand taste of real-life police work.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .