Dog smells underwater rat

A BURGLAR HID at the bottom of a river and used a piece of pipe as a snorkel in a James Bond-style bid to evade capture, police said yesterday.

But Steven Jones, 19, ofBerryhill, Stoke-on-Trent, was caught and was yesterday remanded on unconditional bail by the town's magistrates after he admitted burgling the B&Q garden centre in Hanley, Staffordshire, on 16 July last year and stealing equipment worth pounds 400.

His escape failed when a German shepherd police dog, Barney, picked out the scent of his breath as it came through the pipe - 30ft from the bank - and wafted across the surface of the river Trent. Jones was arrested after spending nearly 10 minutes under the water - by which time he resembled a "drowned rat", said the dog's handler, Constable Keith Booth.

PC Booth, 49, added: "The man thought he could outwit [the dog] by camouflaging his smell under water."