Here’s a novel way to outwit the police – simply eat the jewellery that you were trying to steal. Amazing.

The Irish Daily Star reports that a woman was stopped by security in a jewellery shop in Poland after staff became suspicious when the gold bracelet that she had asked to see suddenly disappeared from the counter.

Despite staff searching high and low for the missing jewellery, they couldn't find it and so the police were called to investigate the strange incident.

When police arrived at the scene they were baffled at where the woman had managed to hide the bracelet. They even went so far as to strip search her.

“Our officers searched the woman but couldn’t find any sign of the bracelet. But it was obvious she had taken it as there wasn’t anyone else in the shop at the time,” said police spokeswoman Mariola Plichta.

What had the woman done? Well, she pretty much just grabbed the bracelet and swallowed it whole. Yeah…we’re a little confused as to how she managed to force a slab of solid gold down her throat too…we're also pretty sure we don't want a detailed explanation of the process...

Growing increasingly suspicious about the situation, police officers apprehended the woman and drive her to a local hospital where she was given an x-ray. Sure enough, the x-ray revealed that the missing gold bracelet was residing in her stomach.

She now faces five years in jail, and probably a very uncomfortable few hours in the toilet…