Victim gets call from angry burglar's wife

Lloyd Shaw told the thief's wife exactly what he had been up to - he says the Police are probably the least of the man's worries. Photo / Sarah Ivey

A man broke into a car but left behind a bag containing his cellphone and prescription medicine - and his enraged wife later phoned to find out where he was.

Lloyd Shaw, 43, was stunned to be phoned by the angry wife of one of two men he disturbed breaking into a friend's car at 9pm on Friday night.

Mr Shaw, owner of Vibra-Train on Auckland's Victoria St West, discovered a duffel bag - which had been used to smash the car's window - after the two men had fled.

After police asked him to bring the bag to Auckland Central police station the next day Mr Shaw took the bag inside and threw it on the floor.

"I heard this voice coming from inside the bag, this woman's voice. So I picked up the phone and it was [the burglar's] wife.

"She was like, 'Who's this?' I said, 'I'm not going to tell you who it is. Who are you?' She goes, 'I'm Lisa, the wife of the guy who owns the cellphone'. I said, 'describe him to me'."

The woman's description of the man - who was wearing a check shirt and had a crewcut - matched one of the men Mr Shaw had seen from behind running away.

When the woman learned what her husband had been up to she went "ballistic".

"She's going off her nut, saying, 'I haven't seen him since 2pm this afternoon ... he took off this afternoon with his mates and I haven't seen him since, I don't know who he's with.'

"I said, 'Well it looks like he's out on the town on the turps and he's causing mayhem. And the guy is just not that smart either'."

Adding to the farce was the fact a photograph of the man's young son came up on the phone when it was rung by his home number.

"That's just so tragic. This guy's like 30 - he's not some 17-year-old out on the town getting pissed."

The duffel bag also contained the man's named prescription insulin, medication and tester - the knowledge of which only added to his wife's distress.

"She was freaking out about his medication. I said, 'Well he better go hand himself in then'... It was a nice little picture of one of the dumbest criminals I've met so far.

"Using your own bag, with the medication which you have to have or you're going to die in a horrible coma."

Police are now in possession of the bag and are investigating the break-in, but Mr Shaw said that might be the least of the man's worries.

"The cops will do their thing. [He may] get bail out of that. He's not going to get bail out of home. That's a life sentence."