Dean Lowson: Clyde burglary live-streamed to mobile phone app
A drug-addled Drouin thief tried to outwit cops by nicking CCTV cameras. But he didn’t know he was already being watched.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A try-hard thief who tried to avoid detection when attempting to burgle a Clyde property by stealing its CCTV cameras instead got a nasty surprise.
Dean Mark Lowson hadn’t realised the homeowner’s daughter was watching his and his mate’s amateur attempt at covert crime as it was being live-streamed to her mobile phone.
She called cops and they caught him red-handed with a bag of cameras and some cactus cuttings, but his pilfering pal managed to do a runner.
The 51-year-old Drouin man pleaded guilty to attempted burglary, theft, going equipped to steal, weapons and drugs offences at the online Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
The court heard a woman phoned 000 around 7.30am on February 19 this year saying she was watching two marauding men at her dad’s Clyde property.
She told police she could see the males walking around, going up to the CCTV cameras and sensors and removing them.
They also took cactus cuttings and put them in a large garbage bag.
A short while later cops arrived on scene and the two men tried to flee on foot.
They cornered Lowson but the other man got away.
In Lowson’s bag they found a head torch, gloves, a knife, a drill and nearby was a bag with the cameras and the cactus cuttings.
Lowson was on bail at the time for drug possessions.
He had been nabbed in November last year walking down Princes Highway in Drouin at 2.30am with .62g of ice, 31ml of 1-4 Bute, a syringe, a glass pipe and a pocket knife.
His defence lawyer said Lowson had been experiencing bouts of homelessness after losing his truck driving job in February 2019.
He said since then his drug use had escalated, which fed into his anxiety and depression and led to his criminal problems.
He said this was Lowson’s first period in custody, having already spent 40 days on remand, and he had somewhere to stay upon release.
Magistrate Julian Ayres said he was also on a community corrections order at the time for more dishonesty-related offending.
Lowson was jailed for two months, minus 40 days already served.
Combined with emergency serves management days he has accrued due to the COVID-19 pandemic it is expected he will be released within a week.
