Police hot on a cold trail

Two alleged burglars in Oamaru were caught out by what police say is 'the oldest trick in the book'. Photo / Thinkstock

Police did not need dogs to track two alleged burglars 12 blocks through Oamaru yesterday - they followed footprints in the snow.

Senior Constable Bruce Dow said a 39-year-old man and a 17-year-old youth were caught out by the "oldest trick in the book".

Police were called about 3.15am after a burglary at the Itchen Street Dairy and followed the snowy trail to Orwell St, where the two were apprehended.

Sergeant Tony Woodbridge attributed the arrests to "good police work", but said it "wasn't that difficult" to follow the trail.

Dairy owner Kerry Tong, who lives above the store with his wife and two young children, said he was woken by the sound of someone trying to break the shop's front window.

Upon inspection, he found the window intact and no sign of any offenders. He returned upstairs, heard the window smash, then called police.

He saw two men flee with two boxes of icecreams. "The street was white. You could see the footsteps," he said.

Mr Tong, who moved to Oamaru with his family four-and-a-half years ago, struggled to find a weapon to defend his family during the burglary and said he was "scared we would be hurt".

The offenders were only in the store for a few minutes.

The man and the youth have been charged with burglary, released with strict bail conditions, to appear in the Oamaru court at a later date.

- Otago Daily Times