porn thief red faced after bust

Porn thief red-faced after bust
By Phoebe Stewart

August 27, 2007 12:00am


A MAN caught stealing a porn magazine was caught in a public toilet just minutes later.

The 19-year-old man emerged red-faced from the disabled toilets in Darwin's Karama Shopping Centre.

The security guard and Karama Newsagency owner Peter Cullip had been waiting for the man for more than 10 minutes.

"He was pretty embarrassed," Mr Cullip, 43, said.

"We can only guess what he was doing in there."

Mr Cullip said the man came into the newsagency about 2.30pm on Saturday.

I thought he looked a bit too casual, so I had a look at the CCTV footage," Mr Cullip said.

Mr Cullip said the CCTV camera caught the thief putting a Fiesta magazine up his T-shirt, and then leaving the store.

The magazine - a British soft-core porn adult magazine, which features girl-next-door-type models - retails for $9.95.

Mr Cullip, watching the thief on CCTV in his office, went out of the store to stop him but he was no-where to be seen.

But with the help of the shopping centre's security guard, they discovered he had locked himself inside the public disabled toilet.

They waited about 10 minutes before calling the police.

But before police officers arrived, the man emerged embarrassed from the toilet.

"He was saying, `C'mon, let me go. I'll pay for it'," Mr Cullip said.

"It was all lies he was telling us, he may have had suspicions that we were waiting for him."

Mr Cullip said when police arrived, they took the man to collect the $9.95 and returned with him to pay the money back.

He said the man had been given a "slap on the wrist" for trespass.