Career criminal John Hogan, 40, was seen in the background of a picture lurking outside the semi-detached property. The married mum-of-two, who lives at the house in Coventry, decided to take some pictures of her children before their childminder took them to school on July 6.
One of the snaps mistakenly to captured Hogan standing next to his mountain bike wearing a black and white baseball cap, navy jacket and grey jogging bottoms.
When the childminder took the kids to school the 34-year-old mother popped to a nearby Aldi supermarket. On returned home she discovered a patio window had been smashed and her handbag, wallet, SatNav and mobile phone had been taken.
She called police immediately and the neighbours who had seen someone running, they gave the description of the person to the police; the mum of two remembered the shady character she has seen outside her home and flicked through the images on her phone until she found the snap.
She showed the snap to the police, immediately Officers recognised the man as career crook Hogan who 47 previous offences including thefts from shops and cars.
Hogan, of Coventry, pleaded guilty to burglary and was jailed for 12 months at Warwick Crown Court on Thursday.
Judge Sylvia de Bertodano said:
"On July 6 in the middle of the day you burgled the house of a lady who had two young children. They had left the house, and I presume you had seen them leave because she had a photograph of her children which caught you in the background, which is how the police arrested you shortly afterwards. Your intention was to get a new boxed television worth four figures at the very least. You didn't get away with it, but you did get a handbag. "You are 40 years old now; you're too old to be behaving like this. It is a great pity to see you back into it, because you had dealt with your problems and settled down to some extent. I hope this is something of a wake-up call."
Judge de Bertodano also ordered Hogan to pay a compulsory £900 court charge.
Defending solicitor, Graham Russell, said the burglar hadn't offended since his release from prison in 2011 but had a "lapse" after a relationship broke down.
He added:
"Drugs have bedevilled his life in the past, but on his release he made a voluntary referral to agencies to help him, he was in a relationship and he got a home.
There was a lapse into the use of crack cocaine, and he went into this street looking for somewhere to burgle. But he is insistent it was only a lapse. He had managed to go the best part of three-and-a-half years without offending in this fashion."
Speaking after the hearing, the mum-of-two, who did not want to be named, said:
"I remembered there had been a guy hanging around outside on his bike. I didn't think too much of it at the time, but everything all came together. When the neighbours who had seen someone running away described him to me I went through the pictures on my phone and found the one of him. I showed it to the police and they said they knew who it was. It was very fortunate I happened to take a picture of the kids at that time otherwise there's a good chance he would have got away with it."
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