Here’s something you don’t see every day. A store owner making a video to tell the story of a man who tried to shoplift from him, got caught, ran off, and then went to the police station to complain about the posters of him that ended up around town and in the newspaper the next day.
Paul Roach, prosecuting, said Allegretto was spotted taking the £23.78 Eclipse engineering magnet and leaving the store. He was confronted by a member of staff and ran off.
He described how Allegretto, of Ditton Fields, walked into Parkside police station a week later angry about the image being published in the News and on social media.Mr Roach told magistrates: “It would seem that what happened is that this photograph of the suspect, I think it was put up in the shop, found its way into the local press, who sit behind me today.
“It was as a result of this photograph being in the press that the defendant then went to the station to complain about his photograph being published.”
Mr Roach added the defendant was interviewed about the incident and reported for the theft.
In that interview, Allegretto told police he intended to pay for the item but was apprehended by staff before he had the chance.
He suggested he was probably stopped because of “the way I carry myself” adding: “I just look dodgy”.
Alright, I thought the video was the best part, but I’m pretty sure I love “I just look dodgy” more than anything else going on here because it’s so completely unclear what he was hoping to accomplish by attempting to use that fact to his advantage.
When questioned further, young Nicholas Allegretto here went on to explain how this poster with the lines through the face was ruining his life.
“I found out I was put into the papers and on Facebook regarding this matter,” he told police. “My family started to suffer as a result of this. My younger sister was mocked at school and my boss at the roofing company said he could not trust me and I lost my job. I’m just very unhappy being accused of something I have not done.”
You’ll have to click here or maybe it’s in the video to see the poster since I can’t figure out how to get it from there to here even though sharing is encouraged, but from all accounts he’d be pretty hard to identify based on it alone.
The court, by the way, thought he did it, and a date for a sentencing hearing was to be decided on soon.
