An Eye on ... cops and robbers

Hong Kong When Lui Kai-kwong, 29, robbed a Hong Kong bank of over pounds 1,200 he was pursued and caught by a security guard and a postman. The robber then snatched the postman's mobile phone, rang the police and turned himself in. He was jailed for three years.

Italy The mayor of Serravalle, near Turin, has found a new way to deter speeding: wooden policemen by the roadside. "When people see a uniform they brake," he explained. The idea came to him at a local play that featured a model of himself. "Between the first and the second act, I swapped places with the dummy and for a few seconds nobody noticed," he said.

California A 77-year-old man, wearing a false moustache and beard, and brandishing a gun, robbed a bank in Santa Ana of $2,500 saying that he needed the money to pay his wife's medical bills. He then drove away so slowly that employees were able to read his license plate number.

Hong Kong In July, Kung Man-wah was sentenced to 30 months in jail for stealing ladies' underwear from a changing room at the Kwai Chung police station. His lawyer had pleaded for leniency, on the grounds that Kung "had a penchant for sniffing ladies' underpants".