A break-in to a popular Christchurch bar earlier this morning had nearly a dozen police officers raising the roof.
A 25-year-old man appeared in court on Saturday charged with burglary but he may have left others with more valuables than he did himself.
In terms of crimes committed so far in 2023, this one might just be through the roof.
CBK Bar and Restaurant in Ferrymead was forced to deal with an early morning pub crawl of a criminal kind.
A phone call from security was not quite the start to her Saturday owner Shelly Trigg was expecting.
"They rang, quickly chucked some gears on, and raced on down," Trigg said.
It all started at around 5am when a 25-year-old man wedged his way through a closed window, straight into the boozer.
Some may say the offender's choice of brew was a little bizarre.
"He also grabbed a can of Fanta," Trigg said.
"He must've got thirsty while trying to get into the safe."
At this stage, the silent alarm had already been triggered, and the police started to arrive.
With no exits in the kitchen, the nearby chiller provided the cops with the perfect ice block.
"He ran into the chiller door, but there's nowhere really to go in there," Trigg said.
With the alleged burglar perhaps feeling a little down and out the answer ended up being right above.
"He got up like that into the roofspace," Trigg said.
As time ticked on, a successful escape seemed increasingly likely.
But after a quarter-of-an-hour of searching and scavenging, just after 5:30am it all came crashing down.
"I said 'someone's still inside' because we could see on our camera footage," Trigg said.
"He got to about here and the roof tiles smashed and he ended up on the ground and the police dog was here."
It's not the first time Trigg's bar has been broken into and not something she wanted to be dealing with so soon into the new year.
"It's been a tough three years - we certainly didn't want to start 2023 like this," she said.
"But I mean it is what it is, we're all safe, and we're still able to trade today so I'm one of the lucky ones."
A not-so-lucky end for this alleged offender caught red-handed, after his fall from grace.
