But just two days later he was caught red-handed breaking into cars in his home town of Spalding.
Jim Clare, prosecuting, told Lincoln Magistrates’ Court on Friday that police were called out to London Road late on Wednesday last week following reports of a man smashing car windows.
Mr Clare said: “Officers arrived and found the defendant stood between two vehicles.”
The court was told that Cooper had a sat nav in his hand and his immediate response was to confess saying: “You’ve caught me red-handed.”
Officers searched him and found a second sat nav on him.
Cooper (27), of Holyrood Walk, Spalding, admitted two charges of theft of sat navs from vehicles on February 1 and admitted a further charge of attempted theft from a vehicle on the same date.
He asked for 13 similar offences to be taken into consideration and also admitted breach of a suspended jail sentence imposed at the same court four days earlier.
He was jailed for a total of 20 weeks.
David Clapham, in mitigation, said: “He has a heroin problem that has been longstanding. He has been struggling to deal with that.
“Almost his entire criminal history has been due to his drug issues.
“The offences are simply a means to an end to get the next fix.”
