Police say they have arrested a suspected thief after tracing his footprints in the snow.

Pcs Dylan Middlemiss and Meggan Rutherford were called out to a report of suspicious activity at an address in Spennymoor, County Durham, when they noticed tracks in the fresh snow, just after midnight on Friday.

They traced the footprints and saw their suspect had tried to get in garages and had tried car doors before they found an abandoned bike.

The trail continued and the officers eventually found a man sitting in a parked BMW smoking a cigarette, and, as Durham Police said, he was “blissfully unaware he had been rumbled – by the weather”.

The officers arrested a 45-year-old on suspicion of attempted burglary, theft, vehicle interference, possession of a controlled substance, going equipped for stealing and possession of a bladed article.

He was being held at Durham police station.