Bungling burglar snagged by cat flap - after being found out by stranded feline

A bungling burglar was caught out by a cat flap as his clumsy attempt to rob someone's home meant he was found out by a stranded feline.

Ex-heroin addict Glenn Foster, from Hull, East Yorkshire, managed to mess up the mechanism of the cat flap through his ham-fisted antics. Foster had a huge list of 164 previous offences, and gave himself away when the luckless cat that lived there was trapped outside in the cold and could not get back inside.

The occupier of the house soon realised that somebody must have burgled his home because he noticed that, unusually, his cat was outside that morning and was not safely snuggled up inside, Hull Live reports. Foster, 47, of Dane View, Dibsdane, Orchard Park estate, Hull, admitted burglary on May 31 last year at crown court.

READ MORE: One of Manchester's oldest pubs named among best in North West

Rachel Scott, prosecuting, said that a man discovered at 9.30am that an iPad had gone missing from his Cottingham home, around two miles from Foster's home address, and that his cat was outside, which was unusual. The cat flap had been tampered with and the cat could not get back inside.

CCTV pictures showed that Foster was lurking about outside the house at 5am and that he had tried the door handle. He was seen walking away nine minutes later, carrying an item. Police later identified Foster from an image. The iPad had been bought for £309 in July 2021.

Foster was arrested and he made full admissions. He claimed that he found a window unlocked and opened it. He later dumped the iPad in a bush. He claimed that he "couldn't believe that he had done such a thing" as the burglary.

He had convictions for 164 previous offences, mostly for theft, and he was a third-strike burglar twice. He