A Westshore man is pleased "good old police work", rather than his $5000 reward, will lead to the conviction of a serial burglar who ransacked his home last month.
Andrew James Birch pleaded guilty to three separate counts of burglary, all spanning less than a week, yesterday in Hastings District Court.
Between January 9 and 13 Birch broke into former Napier City councillor John Harrison's Westshore home and ransacked several rooms, looking for items of value, locating a safe containing cash, a substantial amount of jewellery, passports, cheque books and other personal papers.
"I think he spent half the bloody day pulling at and trying to open that safe, only to find the door was open the whole time," said Mr Harrison, who had been out of town for five days.
After his return and discovery of the crime he told Hawke's Bay Today the "classless" thief had also drunk all his beer - but left the cigars and expensive wine.