Brussels police catch burglar with TV under his arm

With the stay-at-home rule and increased police patrols, now is a really difficult time to be a burglar - as one thief discovered this weekend when he was caught red-handed with a telly under his arm.

The 34-year-old man was arrested on Quai à la Houille in downtown Brussels at 8.45 on Sunday after a passing police patrol spotted him acting suspiciously.

"He was carrying a TV with a remote control, a coffee machine wrapped up in a pillowcase, six coffee pods, a pair of 3D glasses and a half-consumed bottle of pastis," a Brussels Capital-Ixelles police spokesperson said.

"The man claimed he had found the various objects in the street, but refused to say where."

The police officers called the central control room to see if a burglary had recently been reported in the neighbourhood, without any result.

Later that afternoon, a resident on Rue du Grand Hospice returned home to find they had been burgled.

"The goods reported stolen corresponded exactly with the loot found that morning - and they could therefore be returned to their owner," the police spokesperson added.