SYDNEY: A thief has been caught on camera hooking a gold necklace with a fishing rod in a brazen nighttime theft from an Australian designer store.
The thief, captured on CCTV, broke the store window in Melbourne's central business district before using a fishing rod to hook the Versace necklace, local police said Wednesday.
But it took the inner-city angler nearly three hours to land his catch.
After first attempts with a smaller rod failed, the man decided to get a bigger rod, eventually snagging the gold $700 piece from a mannequin's neck in a crime police described as -- until now -- unseen.
"It's fairly blatant and it's quite bold as well, to have someone attend with a fishing rod in the middle of the night," Victoria Police Senior Constable Bede Whitty said.
Police released the footage as they attempt to net the balding, middle-aged thief.