The latest report of an inept liquor store robbery in Aranui has brought to mind some other famously bungled local cases.

A rebuild worker from overseas has suffered a huge financial setback after breaching New Zealand’s drink-drive laws.
He has been working on the Christchurch rebuild for two years two months while sending money back to his wife and two sons in the Philippines.
He had spent the night at a function out of Christchurch and set off early on June 7 to return to the city, to get to a church service.
He says he swerved on the West Coast Road to avoid a rabbit and slid along the wet grass and crashed through a Selwyn District road sign.
That led to a charge of drink-driving when a check showed a level of 555mcg of alcohol to a litre of breath.
He was fined $650 and disqualified from driving for six months.
He wrecked his car and he has lost his insurance because of the alcohol conviction. He cannot afford to get the car repaired.
The council’s insurance company is now seeking $10,000 from him for the smashed road sign as well.
He may get some help from his workmates to get through all these difficulties.
The court did not hear the fate of the rabbit

Four young men faced damage bills after what a lawyer called “The Great Golf Cart Heist”.

Grappling with the sentencing of a young dad for domestic violence, Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish came up with the idea of a whole new licensing system.

The flow of proceedings in Christchurch’s main police court pauses, because the judge is missing some of the weaponry in that courtroom’s constant paper war.

The Rangiora murder trial gave an eight-day view into the lifestyles of the idle and drugged.

James Tahere has given up on Christchurch and the city will have to get back on its feet without him.

Judge David Saunders, to an offender who had appeared unstable at court, and had been held in custody overnight to dry out: “I suggest you stay away from the synthetic cannabis. We know from what we have seen on a regular basis in the court, the unpredictable and angry behaviour that occurs when people are under the influence of that substance.”

A man who got drunk and played “chicken” in the traffic has ended up in custody for his own safety.

“If Leonardo da Vinci comes along and paints the Mona Lisa on my fence, and I don’t want it there, it’s graffiti.”