It's not often that Northlanders enjoy seeing their criminal fraternity at work - but the antics of a hapless Kaitaia burglar are entertaining thousands of people thanks to CCTV and the World Wide Web.
A video posted to YouTube on Wednesday shows an attempted burglary the previous night at Laurenson Technology, a computer sales and service shop on Kaitaia's Commerce St. The perfectly chosen soundtrack to the CCTV footage is the theme tune to The Benny Hill Show, a slapstick TV series popular in the 1980s.
The video, dubbed Kaitaia Criminals, has since been shared online by the Advocate, Houhora police and many others. On the Advocate's Facebook page alone it was viewed more than 2200 times by 9am on Friday.
The footage starts just after 9pm on July 2 with a barefoot man in boardshorts and a red jacket walking down Commerce St. He stops clutching his head just long enough to take a look in the window of Laurenson Technology, then returns a moment later with a water mains cover.