Cops use X-rays to catch thief with ring in his belly

A THIEF who swallowed an engagement ring was caught after police ran a metal detector over his stomach.
Then a hospital X-ray showed up the platinum and diamond sparkler in his gut, a court heard yesterday.
And police kept Simon Hooper in custody for three days until nature took its course and the £1750 ring reappeared.
Jobless Hooper was jailed for 12 weeks after he admitted the bizarre theft at the Clock House jewellery shop in Dorchester, Dorset, in November.
Jeweller Fred Burgess, 57, said after the case: "He walked in and told me his girlfriend had just had a baby and so he wanted to ask her to marry him.
"We discussed what type of ring he was after and I showed him a platinum princess cut ring from the window.
"As he held it in his hand, I turned back to the window to get two more rings but when I looked at him again the ring had gone.
"I asked him where it was and he claimed he had given it back to me. I asked him to empty his pockets.
"I still couldn't find the ring and I could only assume he had swallowed it because there wasn't anywhere else it could be.
"He was eating peppermint cream sweets at the time - I don't know if they helped him to swallow it."
Police took Hooper for an X-ray after a strip search failed to produce the ring.
Even when it appeared on the image, Hooper claimed it was a piece of foil he had eaten by accident. But police refused to swallow his story and put him in a cell.
Justine Gayford, prosecuting, told Blandford magistrates: "By the following day, the ring had still not passed, so his detention was extended by magistrates for 36 hours.
"By November 26, his time was up and at that moment he passed a single stool which contained the diamond ring."
Hooper, from Fordington, Dorchester, who is still with his long-term girlfriend, avoided paying compensation to the jeweller because the ring was recovered.
But Mr Burgess said another buyer had backed out after being told the ring's history.
The jeweller said: "I had to tell her what had happened. Unsurprisingly, she doesn't want the ring now.
"I don't want to sell the ring in my shop now I know where it has been so it will be polished up then sold through the trade."
Desmond Reynolds, defending, said Hooper's judgment had been affected by alcohol.