By hook or by crook: Australia thief robs jewellery using fishing rod

A thief has been caught on camera hooking a gold necklace with a fishing rod in a brazen night-time theft from an Australian designer store.

The thief, captured on closed-circuit television, broke the store window in Melbourne's central business district before using a fishing rod to hook the Versace necklace, police said yesterday.

But it took the inner-city angler nearly three hours to land his catch, AFP reported.

After initial attempts with a smaller rod failed, the man decided to get a bigger rod, eventually snagging the US$700 (S$970) piece from a mannequin's neck in a crime that police described as - until now - unseen.

"It is fairly blatant and it is quite bold," Victoria police Senior Constable Bede Whitty said.

Police released the footage in a bid to net the balding, middle-aged thief.

- AFP