How a Primark trainer ended gang's £1m Rightmove burglary spree

How Primark trainer ended gang's £1m burglary spree27 minutes agoShareSaveAdd as preferred on GoogleRowan Bridges,North WestandBecky Holmes,North WestCheshire PoliceSidorjan Lleshi, along with the rest of the gang, targeted the homes of wealthy peopleA criminal gang who stole more than £1m worth of valuables and irreplaceable heirlooms were brought down by a footprint found at a home they ransacked. Four of the men, who were linked to 59 burglaries across the midlands and north of England, were sentenced to more than 38 years.A fifth man, 29-year-old Endrit Nikoll, of Crabtree Road, Walsall, is due to be sentenced on Wednesday 29 April. While the gang carefully planned their burglaries, through Rightmove, it was the print from a Primark trainer which acted almost like a fingerprint and tied the crimes together.Cheshire PoliceEndrit Nikolli (left) and Sidorjan Lleshi (right) stole designer watches and handbags along with cashA forensic intelligence officer at Cheshire Police explained that every person's footwear tread pattern is different, which helped lead them to the suspects."What makes this one unique is just how rare it was at these specific scenes showing up," they added."It's almost Scooby-Doo-ish following footwear marks around, but the links are there and you can see it, and that modus operandi bringing it all together is what makes it."The men used Google to search affluent postcodes to identify potential targets, according to police, before looking up floor plans on Rightmove. They would then break in to these properties, stealing money, jewellery, and other valuables, even setting weekly targets of how much gold they wanted to steal.This was a carefully orchestrated operation, said detectives from Cheshire Police, tasked with investigating the case."This isn't a burglar walking down a street thinking 'I need to do a burglary'," Det Ch Insp Dave Worthington said.He described this level of plannin...