Brent Watts: Warringal Shopping Centre thief targets Tk Maxx
A Watsonia father who managed to ransack a Cash Converters display cabinet of $8623 worth of jewellery came unstuck when he stuffed a stack of men’s underwear into his bag at Heidelberg’s TK Maxx.
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A persistent thief managed to get away with more than $8600 of jewellery under his jacket but wasn’t so lucky when he tried to nick $230 worth of knickers.
Brent Watts was told he was “too old” for such “nonsense” when he fronted Heidelberg Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, September 10, pleading guilty to a range of opportunistic thefts.
The court heard the 42-year-old had brazenly stolen from businesses in Melbourne’s north and the CBD, even grabbing cash from a till in front of customers.
Watts was on bail on the condition he not attend Heidelberg’s Warringal Shopping Centre on July 7 when he went into the centre’s TK Maxx store and left with $229.86 of men’s underwear in his bag.
Police who searched him outside the store also found he was also carrying two knives — one shaped like a tomahawk.
The court heard Watts straight-up confessed to taking the underwear, saying, “I’m just an idiot”.
He’d already stolen $2080 of phone accessories from the Phone Top kiosk at the centre in January.
Watts had managed to force open the sliding display cabinets about 6pm when the kiosk was closed, before he also tried to get into the Telstra kiosk at Michel’s Patisserie staff area.
The court heard the father also managed to ransack a display cabinet when he stole $8623
of rings from Cash Converters Greensborough in April 2019.
Watts’ friend distracted the staff member while Watts took the tray and put it up his jacket.
Two days later Watts walked into a Rosanna hair salon on Beetham Pde and grabbed $250 from till, despite the owner confronting him before he had his hands on the money, and was chased by the owner and a client as he fled.
He used the same tactic at Mind Games in the city in July 2019, grabbing a bank bag from under the counter.
Watts also stole a staff member’s backpack from Greensborough’s Buckingham Real Estate and an employee’s purse from Williams Shoe Store in May, then went on to use their stolen bank cards.
The court heard Watts had a long history of similar crimes.
Lawyer Tass Antos said his client had long abused heroin and prescription medication, with Watts having told police he was “pilled” and “off his head” during several of the thefts.
Magistrate Ian Alger said he would give Watts some credit for the fact he had taken responsibility for his crimes when arrested, but said the man was “getting too old for this sort of nonsense”.
He sentenced Watts to 15 months’ jail with a non-parole period of nine months, noting 63 days had already been served.
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