Carrying your birth certificate on you to complete a robbery isn’t exactly the smartest thing to do. One man went on a three-month burglary spree across Cambridge and ended up leaving his own birth certificate at the scene of one of the crimes.
Terry Lewis focused on churches, charity shops and other businesses as he went on his burglary spree. The 46-year-old would often head to these places, cause a ruckus and sometimes leave without actually stealing anything.
Between August and October 2022, Lewis broke into a tanning shop, an industrial unit, St. Giles Church and an RSPCA charity shop. He also attempted to break into the British Heart Foundation.
Lewis managed to take a church collection box and $30 and in September 2022, he stole $400 in cash and around $6,000 in jewellery from North London Hospice. Fortunately for police, Lewis managed to make their life easier by leaving a trail of clues behind, which included his birth certificate, DNA, footprints, prison ID cards and plenty of CCTV images.
Lewis was sentenced to a year in prison after admitting five counts of burglary and one attempted burglary. He also admitted a further nine burglaries which were taken into consideration.