But Nicky Allan Hill, who is a caregiver for his wheelchair-bound mother, is not a typical son.
The 32-year-old appeared in the Dunedin District Court yesterday after pleading guilty to a burglary which took place in the first week of the country’s Level 4 lockdown.
On the afternoon of March 27, Hill got into a car with his mother and drove 17km from their Palmerston home to Dunback.
The court heard the defendant was observed “acting furtively” around the grounds of a local bowling club.
He sneaked in through an open window, but was startled when he set off an alarm.
A witness saw Hill dashing back to his car and driving off with his mother at speed.
The “tenacious” member of the public, Judge Kevin Phillips said, tried to block the burglar’s path while on phone to police.
Unable to stop his escape, they tracked Hill all the way back to Palmerston and informed officers of the address, where they later found him.
Hill told police he had been taking his mother out for a drive and wanted to exercise the dog.
Counsel Alex Bligh said the man was also “doing the right thing by his neighbour” by collecting cigarette butts from the bowling club for them.
She told the court Hill suffered mental-health issues and argued it was a “stressful time” for everyone in the country.
While the most recent of the defendant’s nine previous burglary convictions came in 2018, Ms Bligh noted there was a seven-year gap to the one before it.
He was very keen to undertake psychological treatment, she said.
Judge Phillips also pointed to eight previous thefts and eight breaches of release conditions on Hill’s criminal record.
He condemned the man for “taking advantage of the isolation period” and said putting him on a curfew was not a stringent enough penalty.
Hill was sentenced to four months’ home detention.
