A MAN facing burglary, theft and property dealing charges will have to grin and bear it when he fronts court over a late policeman’s heritage soft toy that went missing at St Leonards.
Some good work from Bellarine and Melton police will help reunite a woman with some important pieces of sentimental property that belonged to her late father, a former Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner.
Several items were allegedly stolen from a woman’s house in Centreway Place, St Leonards during a burglary on 19 April – including a Constable T Bear with her late father’s registered number printed on it.
Police said that during some of her own online investigative work, the victim discovered a number of the items including the stolen bear being sold on a website.
“She alerted Bellarine police who were able to make a number of enquiries and track the ‘seller’ to an address in Caroline Springs,” a police spokeswoman said.
“Bellarine police worked with their colleagues in the Melton Crime Investigation Unit who arrested a 20-year-old Caroline Springs man on 23 April.”
He was charged with burglary, theft and deal property suspected of being proceeds of crime and will appear at Sunshine Magistrates’ Court at a later date.