WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) -- A thief was convicted and fined after being spotted on a video posted on the Web site YouTube.

The man was taped slowly circling the store, stealing a laptop computer, slipping the computer into his overcoat and stepping out of the store in the South Island town of Greymouth, local media reported Friday.

The whole performance was posted on YouTube -- set to ''The Pink Panther'' music track -- and attracted 500,000 hits from around the globe.

One viewer recognized the man and alerted police. Dawson Anthony Bliss, 50, was convicted of theft in Greymouth District Court on Thursday after pleading guilty.

Judge Gary MacAskill fined Bliss $1,485 and ordered him to pay $1,478 in reparation.

Greymouth on South Island's west coast is 234 miles south of the capital, Wellington.

source

hum, you are a very good newsposter but, would you please stop using The new york times as the source. Why do I have to login to see the source. Does the source have a link to the youtube video so I can see this for myself?

That's awesome. Maybe the next season of "To Catch a Predator" will feature YouTube instead of Chris Hansen.

Haha, brilliant comment

Reminds me of another video where some guy steals a full size projector down his pants. (sorry don’t have a link)

I presume your complaint is that there was no video link.

The New York Times and other sources did not post the video link -- so Hum will.

The video is titled:

Laptop Being Stolen

Enjoy Click to view attachment:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9imTP-jZI9s&NR=1

ha! what a moron!