BBC
LONDON -A dozey burglar was caught out after falling asleep in a car following a break-in. Alexander Sinclair, 30, had forced his way into a house in Cardiff and taken the keys to the owner’s car. The victim woke at 6am the next morning to find his door open and keys missing, reports WalesOnline. He had gone outside expecting the vehicle to have gone, but instead he found Sinclair sleeping. He called police who had to bang repeatedly on the window of the car to wake Sinclair before arresting him.
The hapless thief told police he had been on his way to the train station after a night out drinking in Cardiff and when it started to rain he just needed somewhere dry to rest. He claimed he locked the car doors, on Rhymney Street, Cathays, Cardiff, in case the owner came out but intended to post the keys back in the morning. But Cardiff Crown Court heard it wasn’t the first time that Alexander Sinclair had fallen asleep on the job.
The court was told that in April last year, Devon and Cornwall police had to use bolt cutters to open the door of a hotel room where they found him fast asleep under a duvet.
Against doctors’ orders, the 30-year-old had been mixing alcohol with his depression medication, said defence counsel Byron Broadstock. Giving him a six-month suspended sentence for the Cardiff offence, Recorder Judge Eleri Rees said that going into someone’s home had a profound psychological effect on the victim. She ordered Sinclair, who admitted burglary, to undergo an alcohol treatment programme.