Burglar Steals Phone, Smashes Windows, Then Helps Himself to Birthday Cake

A sweet-toothed criminal’s three-day crime spree included an unexpected dessert break.

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Most burglars have a plan. Get in, grab valuables, get out fast. Abeeb Hussain apparently missed that particular seminar.

The Birthday Party He Wasn’t Invited To

Across England and Wales, a house gets burgled every 189 seconds. That’s roughly 456 break-ins per day, which sounds horrifying until you realize that means there are burglars out there so incompetent they bring the average way down. Most break-ins follow a predictable pattern. This one took a scenic detour through someone’s kitchen.

On July 26, 2025, Hussain showed up at a home in Eames Gardens, Welland, Peterborough, armed with small stones. Not exactly Ocean’s Eleven level planning. More like Ocean’s Eleven if they raided a garden instead of a vault. But the stones got the job done. He used them to smash through the back door window.

Inside, he grabbed a Samsung mobile phone. Standard operating procedure. But then he spotted a birthday cake displayed in the kitchen. And this is where his decision-making really shines. He cut himself a slice.

Not a handful of frosting shoved in his mouth while fleeing. Not a hasty finger-swipe across the top layer. The 33-year-old stopped his crime spree to practice proper cake etiquette. One imagines him weighing his options: “Well, I’ve already committed breaking and entering. Might as well add unauthorized cake consumption to the charges.”

CCTV cameras caught the whole thing, including footage of Hussain walking out the same door he’d smashed, carrying the birthday cake. A grown man casually strolling away from a burglary, birthday cake in hand, probably looking like the world’s worst party guest. “Thanks for having me, sorry about the door, loved the cake, won’t be sending a thank-you note.”

Detective Constable George Corney called Hussain’s behavior “mind-boggling”. Coming from someone who deals with criminals professionally, that’s saying something. That’s the law enforcement equivalent of Gordon Ramsay saying your cooking is “interesting.”

An Hour to Remember, For All the Wrong Reasons

Research shows that more than half of all burglaries happen when someone is actually home, which is terrifying enough without adding baked goods to the equation. But Hussain managed to add his own special twist to the trauma.

Thirty minutes after his cake intermission, Hussain hit a second property on Somerby Garth in Welland. Half an hour. The man gave himself less recovery time between burglaries than most people allow between meals. Patio doors seemed to be his signature move. He smashed another rear patio door and made off with steaks and other groceries.

So now we’re looking at a crime spree with a meal plan. Dessert at the first house, protein at the second. Someone should check if he hit a third location for vegetables. The man was doing meal prep via breaking and entering. It’s like Blue Apron, except instead of a subscription box, you subscribe to felony charges.

Security cameras captured him before this burglary too. Statistics indicate that around 70% of burglars enter through doors rather than windows, and Hussain was clearly committed to this time-honored tradition. He was also committed to leaving forensic evidence everywhere like he was trying to set a record. Police found his DNA on a cigarette butt outside the property. But then again, some people enjoy a cigarette after a nice meal.

Between the video footage and the biological samples, Hussain was basically leaving a trail of breadcrumbs. Or in this case, cake crumbs and cigarette butts. Hansel and Gretel would be proud. The crime scene investigators probably didn’t even need their full toolkit – just a notepad that said “This guy” with an arrow pointing at the footage.

Day Two: Going Big

Nearly half of all burglaries happen on the spur of the moment. Criminals spot an opportunity and seize it, usually with no more forethought than “I wonder what’s behind that open window.” The following day, July 27, Hussain apparently spotted an open window at a house on Flore Close in the Westwood area of Peterborough.

He climbed through it. At least the patio doors got a break this time. They’d really been taking a beating. But his shopping list got more ambitious and considerably more baffling. He walked out with a 50-inch television, a gold-colored copy of the Qur’an, and a selection of kitchen knives.

Now, televisions make sense. Everyone steals televisions. They’re valuable, they’re everywhere, there’s a decent resale market. Kitchen knives are concerning for reasons that don’t need elaboration. But that gold-colored religious text? That’s the kind of item that might as well come with its own wanted poster. It’s distinctive, it’s meaningful to its owner, it’s exactly the kind of thing that makes detectives say “Oh, we’re definitely finding that.” And doesn’t the Qur’an say stealing is bad? I know the Bible does.

It’s like stealing the Mona Lisa and being surprised when people notice. “What? It’s just a painting. There are lots of paintings.” Yeah, but this one is GOLD and HOLY. Those are two adjectives that really narrow down the suspect list when it shows up in someone’s possession.

Peterborough’s burglary rate sits at about 3.3 crimes per 1,000 people, below the national average. Hussain was apparently trying to single-handedly bring those numbers up to more competitive levels. “If Peterborough is going to make it onto the burglary leaderboard, someone has to do the work.”

The Arrest That Wrote Itself

On August 1, police arrested Hussain, who also went by the name Dillon Currie and had no fixed address. “No fixed address” is putting it diplomatically. When they picked him up, he was carrying the stolen gold-colored copy of the Qur’an.

Not hidden in a storage locker three counties away. Not buried under the floorboards. Not even in a backpack covered by other items. Just carrying it around like it was a library book he kept forgetting to return. This is the criminal equivalent of shoplifting a television and then using it as a hat.

Officers had already identified him by reviewing CCTV footage from all three burglaries. So they had video evidence from multiple angles, DNA evidence from the cigarette butt, and physical evidence in the form of easily identifiable stolen property found directly on his person. If this were a test on “How to Get Caught 101,” Hussain didn’t just ace it – he answered the extra credit questions too.

Only about 5% of burglary cases in the UK result in prosecution. Most burglars get away with it because they’re careful, quick, and don’t leave evidence scattered around like confetti. Hussain took one look at that statistic and said “Challenge accepted – how do I join the other 5%?”

The Aftermath

On November 7, 2025, at Cambridge Crown Court, Hussain admitted to three counts of burglary and received a sentence of two years and two months in prison. That’s about ten months per burglary, or if you break it down by his crimes, roughly eight months for breaking and entering and two months for the sheer audacity of the cake theft.

Detective Constable Corney pointed out that these offenses had significant psychological and financial impacts on the victims. When burglars cause damage breaking in, victims face an average repair cost of over £1,400, plus the value of stolen items averaging around £2,800. That’s over £4,000 in damages and losses. Hussain’s haul included a phone, some steaks, groceries, a TV, knives, a religious text, and one slice of birthday cake. The cake-to-felony ratio here is really not working in his favor.

But the numbers don’t capture the full cost. Having someone break into your home violates your sense of safety in the one place you’re supposed to feel secure. Studies show that 84% of burglary victims experience emotional distress. That feeling intensifies when the burglar is comfortable enough to pause for snacks like he’s raiding your fridge during a sleepover you didn’t agree to host.

There’s a particular kind of violation in knowing someone stood in your kitchen, used your knife, cut your cake, and helped themselves like an uninvited guest at a party. The audacity Detective Constable Corney mentioned isn’t just about stealing. It’s about the casual entitlement of treating someone else’s home like a convenience store with really lax security. “Oh, is this YOUR birthday cake? My mistake. I thought all unguarded cakes were community property.”

Cambridgeshire Police noted that tackling burglary remains one of their top priorities, presumably including burglars who can’t resist the dessert display. Burglary rates in Peterborough have dropped by nearly 11% year over year. If this is the caliber of criminal activity the city is dealing with – criminals who document their crimes on camera, leave DNA evidence, steal items that scream “I WAS STOLEN,” and can’t pass a birthday cake without stopping – that downward trend makes a lot more sense.

The whole three-day spree reads like a tutorial titled “What Not to Do if You’re Planning a Life of Crime: A Comprehensive Guide.” Don’t leave biological evidence. Don’t get caught on camera at multiple locations. Don’t steal things that are easily identifiable and irreplaceable. Don’t carry said stolen items around in plain sight. And maybe, just maybe, don’t stop for birthday cake in the middle of a burglary.

Prison sentences give people time to reflect on their choices. Hussain has two years and two months to think about whether that slice of cake was really worth it. Something tells me the answer is no. But at least he’ll always have the distinction of being the burglar who made Detective Constable Corney use the word “mind-boggling” in an official police statement. Not everyone can claim that achievement.

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NOTE: Some of this content may have been created with assistance from AI tools, but it has been reviewed, edited, narrated, produced, and approved by Darren Marlar, creator and host of Weird Darkness — who, despite popular conspiracy theories, is NOT an AI voice.