Walter Finch
A HAPLESS burglar who broke into a restaurant in Ocean Village has been jailed for two months.
Riyen Lea, 37, of the Varyl Begg Estate, used a crowbar to break into the rear of the Bridge Bar and Grill Restaurant at around 3:30am on Monday, October 28.
However, that was about as successful as he got.
Once inside, he went to work with the crowbar on a fruit machine, but found it impenetrable.
Giving up on that, Lea approached the cash till and had an unsuccessful crack at forcing it open – managing to cause hundreds of pounds worth of damage.
He did find one item to steal before scarpering – a fake gold ring which was left under the cash register.
Staff did not learn about the botched burglary until they opened the following day at 5pm.
Police were quickly able to identify Lea from CCTV cameras in the area and he was arrested at 2.15am the following Thursday at an address on Flat Bastion Road.
Royal Gibraltar Police sources told the Olive Press: “He is a prolific burglar, so he’s well known to officers.
“He wore a hood during the burglary to hide his face, but we picked him up on CCTV later on with his hood down.”
