A brazen burglar faced his victim outside her home and told her: “You ought to be careful.”
Baby-faced Joshua Bruce had the nerve to say to the woman: “Shut your door otherwise you’ll get burgled.”
He still does not see how she would be badly affected by him invading her property, Teesside Crown Court heard.
He had crept into her house at 4am and stole her television and jackets from the front room.
She stepped outside after hearing noise, thinking it was her brother, said prosecutor Emma Atkinson on Thursday.
Police found the stolen goods stashed in the back alley behind the home on Russell Street, Stockton.
Bruce, 20, was soon tracked down acting suspiciously and evading police on Skinner Street.
He told officers he had been drinking, saw the open front door and made a “spur of the moment decision”.
He went inside twice, ignoring his girlfriend’s warnings not to do so, and made off when confronted by the householder.
Bruce, formerly of Westbourne Street, Stockton, admitted his first house burglary, the seventh offence on his record.
He was previously involved with his older brother and grandfather in stripping and selling 2.7 metric tonnes of stolen cable.
His home at the time in Stockton had been turned into a “cable stripping factory”, with an incinerator in the back garden.
The stolen cable was weighed in at scrap metal dealerships for more than £9,000 in the wholesale operation.
Bruce was locked up for 16 months - his first time inside - for handling stolen goods in February last year.
Martin Scarborough, defending him for the burglary, said: “It was an impulsive act. He was drunk and the door was ajar.
“He accepted going in and going back to collect items. There was a confrontation with the lady outside, a brief discussion with her.
“He does have a good work ethic. He was in college for a number of years.
“He does accept full responsibility and does show remorse.”
Judge Howard Crowson told Bruce: “You were sneaking into somebody’s home at 4am.
“You had the gall to talk to her, partly because you were in drink. That makes things worse, not better.
“According to the probation officer you don’t understand why she’dbe negatively affected by what you did.
“You’re wrong. It’s her house. She found you in it. She’s bound to be negatively affected.
“That’s why you’re going to serve a custodial sentence.
“I don’t particularly agree that you were impulsive since you went in twice and you were told by your girlfriend not to do it.”
He sent Bruce to a young offenders’ institution for 16 months.
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