Colostomy bag thief fails to click

A bungling thief who thought he had taken a valuable camera ended up with a case full of colostomy bags.

The burglar struck at the home of Kath Tozer in Penzance and ignored other valuables as he took the Kodak camera case and fled.

The case belonged to a state-of-the-art digital camera, but Mrs Tozer, 70, uses it to keep her travelling supply of colostomy bags which she uses because she is recovering from an operation to remove tumours.

She said: "The whole room was full of Christmas gifts for the grandchildren that were being wrapped and they left all those.

Funny side

"There was nothing else in there apart from the camera case with a load of colostomy bag dressings inside it and they took that.

I was really angry and upset at first but now I can see the funny side

Kath Tozer, theft victim

"Although we were upset to think somebody had been in our house we could see the funny side of it.

"I hope that one day they will need those bags as much as I do now.

"I think it must have given them a nasty shock so they might think twice before coming in next time," she said.

Alan Mobbs of Devon and Cornwall Police said: "House burglaries can be very distressing for people, but I think in this case the thieves got what they deserved."