Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond said a youth smashed a shop window in the Musselburgh dairy with a tyre iron, about 8.50pm yesterday, before breaking in and taking cigarettes from behind the counter.
Police were in the area at the time and found him a short distance away.
‘‘We told him he was under arrest, but he ran off, dropping cigarettes as he went.
‘‘I would have liked to have said we followed the cigarette trail, but we didn’t.’’
He was located a short time later in the grounds of Tahuna Intermediate School, where he was found breaking into a vehicle.
Snr Sgt Bond said the youth was charged with the burglary of cigarettes and the car, escaping police custody and another burglary relating to the Tahuna Canteen, which was broken into last week.
He was expected to appear in the Dunedin Youth Court.
