An eagle-eyed former Norwich Evening News crime reporter found himself on the frontline of criminal activity when he caught a shoplifter red-handed.

Peter Walsh was enjoying a coffee with his wife Becky and daughter in a local shopping centre when he spotted a teeanged boy and woman loading up a bag with clothing in a branch of Jane Norman.

Peter, now deputy news editor with the Archant daily, was then waiting for his wife outside Claire’s Accessories when she came out to say they were stealing items from there too.

He told the Evening News: “I thought we better report it and so I went into Jane Norman and told them what Becky had seen.

“We finished our coffee and then Becky went into Claire’s Accessories while I waited outside. Becky then came out and said ‘Pete, he’s in here’.

“He was down on the ground with the Next bag open and the woman he was with was dropping items into the bag.

“I told the security guards I saw him do it and they waited for him outside the store. The last I saw was them being led away by the security guards.”

The police were called to the scene and both the youth and woman were detained for shoplifting. The boy, aged 16, admitted shoplifting and was given a fixed penalty notice.

This is not the first time Peter has found himself solving crimes as in 2002, while working as a trainee reporter, he helped track down a gun-toting robber who had held up a fast-food restaurant in Hastings.