Colin Booth, 28, was sentenced to four years jail on Friday over a burglary in Dunlop in February last year.

Booth was caught by police just 11 minutes after the break in, after a sergeant noticed him crouched down in the front yard of a nearby home just before 3am in the drizzling rain.

The sergeant asked him what he was doing, and he said he was waiting for a mate named "Jay", but could not give a surname or his address.

She described Booth as “a bit nervous”, and “a little bit shaky” as he spoke to her.

Police took him back to the station after finding the handbag, but he was too drunk to be interviewed.

Earlier that night, a family had been alerted to the burglary after their dogs began barking.

A couple's 19-year-old daughter ran into the hallway outside their bedroom and called out "dad quick, someone is in the house".

“Somebody's in the house. I think they're in the garage or they are going out through the garage," she said.

The woman's father went into the garage to investigate, and noticed a person standing next to his car.

He called out, and the man ran down the driveway and down the street.

Booth was found guilty of the burglary in Dunlop after a judge-alone trial.

He had maintained his innocence of the crime.

In sentencing Booth, Justice John Burns told him he had not demonstrated "any remorse for your offending".

Booth was also deemed a high risk of reoffending.

He will not be eligible for parole until December 2014.