Smoking bad for burglar

A burglar was undone by a cigarette butt he left behind. Te Urewera Lionel Epiha broke into a Life Education mobile classroom bus parked at the Murupara Library last year and stole more than $9000 worth of equipment including 14 laptops, but police nailed him by tracing DNA from the discarded butt. Epiha, 30, appeared in the Rotorua District Court and admitted eight charges including burglary, theft from a car, two counts of driving without a licence, receiving stolen property valued at more than $1000, unlawfully possessing ammunition, giving false details to police and theft after a crime spree from March 25 to May 3 last year. He will be sentenced on May 25.