STOLEN goods have been recovered by police who followed bike tracks left by bungling burglars in deep snow.

Cleveland Police made light of the incident that happened during storms in February.

A force statement released yesterday said: “At frost glance, both officers signalled for the men to stop but in a snowy flurry they dropped all of the property they were carrying and cycled off.

“Officers recovered the property and traced the bicycle tracks in the direction the males had come from to a house where they discovered a burglary had taken place.”

One officer then followed more tracks on foot for six miles before arriving at a house in Billingham where one of the men answered the door and the other was detained after trying to escape through a window.

The statement continued: “Snow what now? After being dealt with in court last month, one of the men was given a two-year suspended sentence.

“The second male was given a 12-month community order and 40 hours of unpaid work.”