Gold thief escapes on getaway donkey

A thief used a forklift to break into a jewellery store before fleeing the scene on a getaway donkey, footage showed.

The man, known only as MC, made the escape after robbing a store in Kayseri, central Turkey, on Tuesday.

He was filmed riding through town on the animal after taking goods from the store before being caught and arrested.

Security footage showed the masked suspect using a forklift to prise open the metal shutters of the shop, where he allegedly stole 150g of gold.

CCTV shows him breaking through a window to get to the shop counter.

He then pushes the glass-topped counter on its side and leaps over it before frantically searching through the contents that had tipped out on to the floor.

The suspect is then seen finding something before making his escape, jumping back over the cupboards and out the window.

Once outside, he was captured on multiple cameras riding through the empty town on a donkey that had been waiting nearby.

Several angles show the donkey trotting through the street, with the suspect mounted on its back.

The 26-year-old suspect was later found and arrested by police. They had identified him through the video and launched a search. Video showed him being walked out of a station by two officers.

Police officers were also filmed digging up the stolen gold jewellery, which had been wrapped in a black plastic bag and buried in a muddy patch of land.

The goods, which included ornate rings, necklaces and bracelets, were later returned to their owner, police said.

This is not the first time a donkey has been used as a getaway vehicle, but neither time has proved particularly effective.

Thieves in Colombia were forced to abandon their plans in 2013 when their getaway donkey made too much noise and alerted the local police.

A group of men had stolen the donkey to use for their escape as they took a number of food items from a shop in the small town of Juan de Acosta, in the northern coastal region of the country.

But the 10-year-old animal named Xavi refused to co-operate and brayed so loudly that police came to investigate, prompting the criminals to flee and the items to be returned to the shopkeeper.

Xavi was held at the police station for 12 hours until its owner Orlando Olivares came to collect it.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]