It’s hardly surprising that thieves want to hide when they hear the blues and twos of police cars. The flashing lights and loud sirens are enough to make any criminal want to run away.
Yet, some will try their hardest to stay hidden in plain sight.
Whether it’s an off-the-cuff decision to jump into a bin, or a well thought out ruse to stuff themselves into a giant teddy bear… police have time-and-time-again caught them in the act.
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Often captured on bodycam, when their creative and somewhat strange refuge is discovered, they are left red-faced.
Here, the Manchester Evening News looks back on five of the most bizarre choices for hiding spots which were rumbled by police.
Hidden in a wall?
"It's fair to say we'll quite literally go through walls to catch those that we're after!" say police, who captured the unexpected moment a man was found hiding in a wall to evade officers who arrived to arrest him.
In bizarre body camera footage, police investigate what appears to be the kitchen of a home in the Southdene area of Kirkby, Merseyside, in January last year.
Officers from Wigan's District Tasking Team take a knife to a small opening, above a shelf and counter top inside one of the walls. They then prise open what is revealed to be a door to a tiny cubby hole.
Suddenly, a forehead appears, popping up in the dark space.
Emerging on his hands from the tight cupboard, a man - wearing only his underpants - crawls forward, past bottles of cleaning spray and bleach, and into the waiting arms of police who haul him down from the counter and arrest him.
The 32-year-old man was wanted for a string of offences - including two domestic violence offences and a driving offence, as well as being on recall to prison for breaching his licence conditions. He has since been remanded into custody.
Hidden in a bush?
Stuart Haslam led cops on a terrifying pursuit - before trying to hide in a bush.
In footage shared by Greater Manchester Police, Haslam, 44, can be seen squeezing his Vauxhall Astra — using false number plates — in between other traffic in Dukinfield, Tameside. He also drove across green areas of the town and down a pedestrianised alleyway.
Video released by police shows Haslam’s desperate attempts to flee. The driver, of Cunliffe Street, Hyde, dumped his car and tried to hide in bushes.
However, he could not fool the officers pursuing him, who apprehended him at the scene. He led officers on his reckless journey through Dukinfield on March 29 earlier this year.
In May, Haslam was jailed for 16 months for four offences. He was also banned from driving after his conviction for dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance, failing to stop at a collision, and failing to stop for police.
Hidden in a teddy?
Officers were left baffled during a search for teenager Joshua Dobson when they heard a teddy bear “breathing”. After examining the toy, they found 18-year-old Dobson had stuffed himself inside.
Police were looking for him over the theft of a Mitsubishi ASX in May and not paying for petrol on the same day. He was arrested and last week sentenced to nine months behind bars, police said.
Dobson, of Airhill Terrace, Rochdale, was jailed for 32 weeks for a string of offences at Manchester Magistrates' Court in August.
He was convicted of theft of the Mitsubishi, valued at £8,500, and its keys, driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance and making off from a petrol station without payment, on Saturday, May 21 this year.
According to court documents he was also sentenced for taking a Vauxhall Astra van without consent, driving whilst disqualified, driving without insurance, theft of a toolbox and two tablets and criminal damage, all on March 3 this year and was also banned from driving for 27 months.
Hidden in a shower block?
Prolific burglar James Chesterton was arrested after hiding in a shower block within a cement works following a high-speed police pursuit.
Chesterton, whose campaign of crime was called 'quite staggering' by police, thought he had given officers the slip in a Mercedes AMG after raiding a Stockport Post Office for cash and cigarettes.
But little did he know that every movement he made was being monitored - from the sky.
A police helicopter tracked, pinpointed - and crucially filmed - his location from above and was able to guide in officers on the ground.
Chesterton was then arrested hiding in the shower block within a portable unit at the cement works, with a balaclava also found on a bench near him.
The incredible CCTV footage has been released as the 27-year-old starts a five-year prison sentence.
In total, he admitted three thefts, seven burglaries and five attempted burglaries.
Chesterton, of Bear Tree Road, Rotherham, was locked up by a judge at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court in January 2020.
Hidden in a bin?
Lee Ullah was caught by police hiding in a bin - wearing the coat of the woman he targeted.
The 47-year-old broke into the woman's house in Oldham in the early hours of the morning on November 25 last year.
She woke up at 6am to find him inside, police said, before noticing that the TV was missing.
She then challenged him, but he fled the scene, on Robinson Street in Chadderton, wearing her coat. Officers later found him hiding in a bin, still wearing the coat.
Ullah, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to two counts of burglary and criminal damage. In February a judge at Minshull Street Crown Court jailed him for three years and nine months.
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