AN eagle-eyed tot helped cops catch a suspected thief.

Ashton Owens, two, made an early start to crime fighting by helping police arrest a man near his home in Meredith Road, Clacton.

Little Ashton spotted a man crouching in the garden through his bedroom window.

He shouted and pointed at the figure - tipping off police to his hiding place Police arrested the man on suspicion of shoplifting.

Ashton’s mum Alice said: “Ashton was making noises in his room and I went in and saw him at the window.

“He was pointing and shouting.

“I went to see what had got him so excited and after a few seconds I saw a man dash across the garden.

“It was a bit of a shock. You don’t expect to see strangers running around your garden.”

Police were in the area looking for a man who had stolen a pack of razors from Boots in Pier Avenue, Clacton.

But they did not know where he was until they saw Ashton pointing from the window on Monday at 10.30am.

Mum Alice said: “The police caught him when he jumped over our garden fence to get away, but they would never have known where he was if it wasn’t for Ashton.

“The police came round to the front door after they had arrested him and told me what had happened.

“They said they had seen Ashton pointing and it led them to the man.

It’s not often you get to say a child that young helped to catch a criminal.”

A man, 35, from Clacton has been charged with two counts of theft, including stealing a gammon joint from a Co-op store on Sunday.