/ 16 August 2005

Burglar returns to crime scene to apologise

A burglar who broke into an office in Portugal last week, making off with a portable safe that contained just €10 (about R79), returned over the weekend to leave a note apologising for the theft, the Lusa news agency reported on Sunday.

The envelope with the note was slipped into the mailbox of the office in the northern city of Oporto and it included documents that were also inside of the stolen safe but not the cash, police told the agency.

“First of all, I want to apologise for wrecking the door lock,” the burglar wrote in the note, before adding that “life’s problems sometimes force us to commit foolish acts”.

The note alluded to the small amount of cash obtained in the break-in, saying “you were lucky and I was unlucky”, police told the agency. — AFP