Cop finds would-be thief with pants full

AN eagle-eyed off-duty police officer made arguably the easiest arrest of her career when she saw a woman shoving meat and chocolate bars down the front of her pants in a North Queensland supermarket.

“Yeah, you caught me, I was trying to steal,” Joanne Lighting, 51, told the officer after she was caught in Coles Ingham on May 15.

Lightning pleaded guilty in the Ingham Magistrates Court on Thursday to the sole charge of attempted stealing on May 1, as well as an additional charge of committing a public nuisance in a separate incident two weeks later.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Erin Collis said the off-duty officer was shopping at Coles at lunchtime when she entered the frozen aisle and saw Lightning “shove something in her pants” and then admitted to the botched theft.

“The defendant has then removed the items, which were packaged meat and chocolate bars from her pants,” she said.

Senior Constable Collis said the goods, which had to be thrown out, were valued at $20 although no restitution was sought.

The police prosecutor said the second charge related to a drunken argument in which the defendant made multiple threats to “smash” a second person at a private address at 9pm on Sunday, May 15.

Despite police warnings, Lightning continued to threaten to strike the victim, she said.

Defence lawyer Margaret Crowther said her client’s parents were both alcoholics and her siblings had passed away from alcohol-related deaths.

She said her client had been off alcohol for a month and was trying to rehabilitate herself. Lightning was convicted and fined $400 and $500 on the respective stealing and public nuisance charges.