A bag for a bag

After someone stole his bag, Richard McNeil Cheltenham decided to steal a bag belonging to someone else.

Unfortunately for him that decision landed him in HMP Dodds for four months.

The 54-year-old unemployed man of no fixed place of abode, admitted to stealing a handbag and a cellphone, total value $133, belonging to ParkeNapier Mapp on January 1, 2020.

In his defense, he claimed that his bag had been stolen and he took the bag to replace it.

The court heard from prosecutor Sergeant Vernon Waithe that the complainant was sitting at a gazebo near the Jewish Synagogue along Coleridge Street, St Michael reading a newspaper with the bag in a seat next to him.

The accused approached him, took the handbag and ran off in the area of Magazine Lane.

The complainant reported the matter to police at the nearby Central Police Station and while they were on patrol they saw him along Crichlow Alley, where he was stopped.

He tried to run off but was quickly apprehended by police officers and subsequently arrested and charged.