Social media video of thief breaking into car leads to man's arrest

A video circulated on social media, showing a man breaking into a parked car, has led to the arrest of a man suspected of multiple thefts.

Police inspectors Antonello Magri, Kurt Farrugia, and Keith Rizzo, assisted by prosecutor Brendan Hewer, arraigned 46-year-old Stephen Urry before magistrate Marseanne Farrugia on Wednesday.

Inspector Farrugia told the court that while investigating a theft from a car in Paola, the police had obtained footage which showed the car being broken into.

That footage had also been circulated by third parties on social media, he said. When a third party informed the police that a man wearing the same outfit as the person on the video was currently in Triq il-Gdida, Paola, officers had immediately gone to speak to him.

The officers confirmed that the man, Urry, was indeed wearing the same clothes as the person in the footage and took him in for questioning. It emerged from the investigation that the same suspect had likely been involved in other aggravated thefts of wallets, keys, sunglasses, electronics, and cash over the past three months, in Paola, Fgura, and Tarxien.

Urry, who told the court he was homeless, claimed to have been boarded out on mental health grounds when asked what he did for a living.

He pleaded not guilty to four counts of aggravated theft and criminal damage, as well as a charge of recidivism and breaching bail.

Legal aid defence lawyer Maria Karlsson, who was appointed to assist the defendant, did not request bail.