Serial burglar doused house in soy sauce
When police raided Benjamin Zachery Burgess’ home in June last year they found more than 600 stolen items — and that was only part of his ill-gotten haul.
The 29-year-old had spent the preceding three months targeting upmarket homes in some of Dunedin’s most affluent suburbs and may have got away with more than $300,000 of goods, a court heard.
The exact figure was almost impossible to calculate, Judge Kevin Phillips told the Dunedin District Court yesterday, and did not take into account the scores of items with sentimental value that would never be returned.
“Your overall acts here have had a high impact on people you don’t know, people that you’ll never know. They will remember you for the rest of their lives,” he said.
Burgess pleaded guilty to eight burglaries, a reduction from the 14 charges he originally faced.
The spree began on March 8, 2018 when the defendant — allegedly with another man, who has pleaded not guilty — went to a Woodhaugh property. The occupants were away when Burgess got in through a window. Each burglary was similar in style. Burgess would draw the curtains and was painstakingly thorough, working his way through every area of the house in search of valuables.
After the break-in at a house in the city’s Belleknowes area in April, Burgess and his co-defendant doused the floor of the home in soy sauce and powdered it with flour before smashing a television and stealing $15,000 of camera equipment, clothing, electronics and tools, the court heard.
Among the usual jewellery and electronics, the burglaries netted a telescope, a $50,000 Audi, three children’s motorbikes, whiteware, a traditional Russian instrument, a mandolin and an entire sound system.
Several victims wrote statements about how the city they considered safe had since taken on a different complexion.
Burgess, who was also convicted on domestic violence charges, was jailed for four years, seven months.
Any reparation ordered would only bring the victims “false hope”, the judge said.