Episode 1 Thief Trackers

Bag snatchers, robbers and street crime.

According to the latest police figures,

more than 3,500 incidents of theft are reported

every day in the UK.

My advice would be definitely put a tracker on.

It was very scary.

But what happens to our belongings when they're stolen?

Thief Trackers shows who takes them and where they go.

Hidden trackers inside items

like cameras, smartphones, and bicycles

to trace their every move.

The thieves think they have got away with it

but we've got them under surveillance.

Using undercover footage, CCTV and tracking technology,

we'll get an insight into the criminal mind,

and uncover the unseen journey that our possessions take

when they're stolen.

Today, the Thief Trackers are on the trail of a stolen personal computer tablet...

He's taken it.

Let's go, let's go.

..coming face-to-face with the thief as he tries to

cover his tracks.

Plus, satellite tracking technology helps to trace

one man's holiday home as caravan thieves strike.

The next thing, it was a stinger across the road.

There was no way they were going anywhere after that.

And a phone snatch victim goes online to hunt down her missing phone...

We located the girl on Facebook.

..mounting her own sting operation to get it back.

I think a lot of other people were disgusted about it.

Almost 300,000 electronic devices are stolen each year across the UK.

But often crooks are less interested in your tablet or smartphone

but more in what it contains -

personal information such as addresses,

bank details and passwords - to steal your identity.

Helping the Thief Trackers with our investigation

is our specialist crime adviser, Alex Stewart.

He was assigned to some of the toughest areas of London,

both on patrol and as an undercover officer,

in his time on the force with the Metropolitan Police.

From theft, to drugs, to violent crime,

he has seen what life is like on the streets.

As night falls, the busy areas around city stations

are a fertile hunting ground for thieves

as members of the business community hit the pubs

after a hard day's work.

With all of the crowds,

it's very unlikely that thieves will be seen

and even more unlikely that they'll be caught.

We fitted a tracker into a personal computer tablet.

We won't tell you where, that would give the game away,

but if it is stolen, we can use the GPS tracking signal to follow where

it goes and track down the thieves.

Watching their every move is the Thief Trackers undercover team,

who will be mounting a covert surveillance operation.

For their safety, you won't see them,

but you'll hear their voices.

Keep your camera on these guys.

One of the team gets into position on some steps at a mainline station.

The computer tablet with a tracker inside

is in the pocket of a rucksack beside him on the steps.

It's something we all do. The rest of the team watch from nearby.

-OK, we're on.

-The tracker in the tablet is live.

Now it's a waiting game.

It's a busy thoroughfare, making it a theft hot spot.

-First guy, first guy.

-Did he stop?

-No.

-He definitely looked at it, didn't he?

-Yeah.

The guy on the bike.

Quick look.

Gone.

It's not long before the team sees someone of interest.

Hold on. I've seen this guy before.

This guy walked past a second ago.

It's the same man.

He has now walked past the team twice.

It's that guy again with the folder.

-He's back.

-I think he bottled it.

Yeah. He's been circling around.

It's the guy with the folder back.

-I think he's going to go for it.

-Yeah, he's taken it.

OK, let's go, let's go.

The thief slips away into the night,

but the GPS signal from the tracker shows where he goes.

And the Thief Trackers are on his trail.

As it's dark, the Thief Trackers check the footage

to see what the thief looks like.

They need to make sure they get the right man.

Right. It's that way to the right.

Later, the undercover team track our stolen tablet.

How close are we?

And they come face-to-face with the thief.

More and more of us are taking to Britain's roads in a caravan.

To some, they're an ideal way to explore the country.

But these homes on wheels are easy targets for criminals,

who have hitched up and towed away over almost 2,000 caravans in 2015,

as happened to one proud owner in Bristol.

We like to get away with our caravan

just for wee holidays, wee breaks,

just the freedom it gives you, it's phenomenal.

Because I'm in the pub and restaurant trade,

my days off are in the middle of the week,

so you don't get away at the weekend.

So I'd hitch up the van, get away Tuesday, Wednesday,

come back and basically, you could do that every week.

We use the caravan for holidays all over the place,

we've been right up to Glasgow, round the top end of Scotland,

and not last year, the year before, right down to Devon.

Cost me 17-and-a-half grand, that van, brand-new.

You don't spend 17-and-a-half grand without thinking you're going to take care of it.

The main thing was get it on a tracker, good alarm system.

To protect his investment, John called in a tracking company.

Spending quite a lot of money on a caravan,

and you fill it with all those little bits and bobs,

it's a little bit like an extension of your home.

It's not like your car, you don't have too many precious

things in the car, but your caravan,

you take it really seriously and you don't want to lose it.

It's not just about getting a new one if your old one goes,

it's all those bits and bobs,

all those memories you're protecting for people.

John's worst fears came true when in the early hours one morning,

he had a rude awakening.

It was a Sunday morning, late Saturday night, the phone went,

this voice says, "It's Phantom here, your alarm's gone off."

I was thinking, "My alarm's gone off? I can't hear anything."

Then it suddenly started to sink through - my alarm, as in my caravan alarm.

And she says, "It's activated."

In the event of an alarm trigger, we speak to the customer,

see if it's just a false alarm, get them to just check what's occurring.

The van is parked in the field at the back of the pub,

so I'm walking through to get to the rear door,

which overlooks the back.

Looked down over the car park

and I could see two shapes

trying to hitch up my van.

With his caravan about to disappear, John quickly called the police.

Phoning treble nine and from a licensed premises,

I got a fantastic response because there was a robbery in progress.

This guy's starting to pull out of the field with my van on the back.

By this time I'm half dressed,

he's not getting away with my van and I'm thinking,

"If he hits the motorway up the road, I've lost it."

I ran down the fire exit on my side, jumped into my car...

..and he pulled out one side of the car park

as I come to the other side,

and he started heading up to the M5 junction.

If there is a theft and the caravan is on the move,

then that data is coming through fairly consistently.

We're almost plotting it every 30 seconds or so,

that position will be on screen and we're usually on the phone to

the boys in blue who are hot in pursuit.

As I pulled out, the first police car arrived, I shouted,

"That's him there and I'm following him," and shot straight off

after him, and the policeman turned round and he joined me.

Running up, through the first set of lights, hit green, great,

catching up on this guy, second set of lights were red,

he is going through and I'm thinking,

"Should I go through, should I?"

Police car right at the back of me, my luck,

he was going to give me a ticket at the end of this.

No. I pulled in, let the police car go through

because he had the blues and twos on,

he shot through and I had to wait until the lights changed.

As we're driving up the road, "Pass him, pass him, get in front of him,"

and the policeman was trying to get in front of them but this guy was

swerving right across the road and I'm thinking,

"No, no, no, get past him, get past him, no, no, no!"

Every time he'd swerve, I thought I could see my van going over the side

of this field in a minute.

It was very scary. Very scary.

He kept swaying the caravan across to stop the police car getting in front.

As we got up towards the motorway junction,

we got a police car in front of him.

All of a sudden,

this one at the back beside me starts waving me to slow down.

The next thing, there was a stinger across the road.

Punctured the tyres on the van.

And the caravan.

And there was no way they were going anywhere after that.

They just sort of ground to a halt, the police surrounded it,

gets these two bodies out, one male and one female,

and this other copper comes back to me and says,

"Mr Brown, I'm sorry I had to puncture the wheels on the van as well."

I said, "I'm not fussed.

"My van's here, thank God for that!"

You see it on the telly all the time, people doing these manoeuvres,

but to actually see it and be

in on it as it was happening was absolutely phenomenal.

John's was a slightly weird one

because he kind of caught them outside and

was involved in the chase himself.

We would never advise customers

to get involved in a police chase kind of thing,

but there was no stopping him.

I couldn't believe it, how prepared they'd come.

They know what they're doing, it's not a casual,

just happened to be passing and see your caravan.

My advice would be definitely put a tracker on.

If it's a toss-up on the money side, definitely go for the tracker.

Tracing your stolen property to retrieve it from the hands of the thieves

before it's sold on is not an easy task.

Earlier on, one of the team set themselves up

outside a busy railway station.

The rest of the Thief Trackers watched

as a suspect passed by several times

before eventually stealing the tablet.

-He's going to go for it.

-He's taken it.

-OK, let's go, let's go.

The thief disappears into the night

but the undercover team are hot on his heels,

following a signal from the tracker in the tablet computer

which shows his every move.

But they pause to check the footage from the snatch to make absolutely

sure that they know who they're after.

Right. It's that way to the right.

Now they know what he looks like, the team are back on his trail.

The team now know what the thief looks like and, despite the risk,

they will confront him.

He's taken it, OK let's go.

Sorry to bother you.

No, no, no. You can check my bag.

-I've got no tablet.

-Samsung tablet?

-No, man.

-Sure?

Yeah.

He hasn't got the tablet on him and although he denied it,

we know he definitely took it.

Not a white tablet?

-You can check my bag...

-OK.

OK, no worries.

We've caught up with the thief, but not the stolen tablet.

But the tracking signal is still live,

showing the tablet is somewhere nearby.

Where's it saying it is now? How far is it saying we are from it?

In this section here.

A blue dot. The tablet.

I think it's in this block somewhere.

A way in, yeah.

The tracking signal hasn't moved from this spot so it's

likely he's hidden the tablet, so the team search the area.

Yeah.

It's definitely locked.

You know what? It's easy enough to climb,

he could've done that easy enough. Let's check round the side and see what the craic is round there.

But there's any number of places the stolen computer could be in these dark alleys.

-Found it.

-That's amazing. Wow.

One for the tracking squad.

Yeah.

Trackers one, robbers nil.

Our crime advisor, Alex Stewart,

a former Met police officer, analyses the crime scene.

So, this is where it happened, and looking at the footage,

what we can see is that he's made two or three attempts going past,

scouting it out...

..even at one point

looking like he's going to grab it and then bottling it.

He's then moved in, very quickly grabbed it...

..and the tracker is showing that he headed this way.

So, the tracker is showing that he's come off what is still

quite a busy street here onto this quiet cut through,

presumably because he's trying to avoid being spotted.

He may know this area quite well.

It's on this quiet side street where we meet him again.

No. Seriously, you can check me.

I don't have it.

-Samsung tablet.

-No, man.

Seriously.

So he's found a quiet street to stash the laptop in a pile of rubbish.

Presumably working on the theory that it'll not be disturbed until morning.

Of course, what he didn't reckon on was Thief Trackers

following his every move.

It's a common trick,

stashing the stolen item on the theory that we'd have to find it

on him in order to be able to prove anything.

Of course, what he did not reckon with was that we filmed him taking it.

That's one for the Thief Trackers and we still have the unblurred footage

of the tablet thief in action, which we're more than happy to share with the police.

As we've seen on Thief Trackers,

it only takes a second for thieves to steal your property.

Crooks will strike just when we least expect it

and on a Friday night,

there are rich pickings to be had around pubs and bars.

It's the end of the working week,

a chance to unwind with friends, but an ideal opportunity

to have your pocket picked,

as one regular at a local pub in Leicester found to her cost.

It's a local, so we're always in there and we get on quite well

with the barman, so we tend to sit at the bar and have a few drinks

and just have a laugh.

Everybody knows everybody, everyone says hello to everybody.

So it was just a regular Friday night, ended with no events, really,

and we headed home.

But that is when I realised that I hadn't got my phone.

That sheer panic just goes straight through you. I was running round,

trying to look for it, I emptied my whole handbag out

and was ringing the phone from my boyfriend's mobile

and it was switched off.

In my head she'd lost it or dropped it in the canal or it's gone.

I couldn't see the people I was with that night stealing it.

So I just forgot about it.

But Gemma wouldn't really forget about it.

The next day,

first thing, straight up to the local pub,

we had a look on CCTV to see if we could see anything.

Unfortunately, where I was sat at the bar

the bar pumps were in the way and you just couldn't

see where my stuff was.

By this time, I was sort of convinced

that I definitely hadn't lost it.

I was kind of leaning towards the fact that someone had stolen it,

but then when I was looking at the CCTV,

I knew everyone in the pub and I thought, no, nobody could do that.

The next few days, I was just searching on the internet for a replacement phone.

And then there was one sort of iPhone 6 that was white

which was the same as mine.

And it said it was brand-new,

they only wanted £100 for it as well and I thought again,

a brand-new iPhone that has just come out, they're like 700 quid.

I had a look on the picture and you could see that there was a slight

see-through case on the phone and I thought,

"Mine had a see-through case on it," but again, it is non-descript.

I screenshotted the picture and sent it to my partner.

Dinner time comes, she said, "I've found it."

I said, "You can't have, there are millions of phones out there."

She's adamant, "This is my phone."

Gemma wasn't giving up and enlisted her good friend and colleague Katie.

She was in first thing in the morning

on the computer and as I came in,

she e-mailed me a link. And on the mobile phone,

they had only taken a picture of the top half of the phone,

so they had cut out the IMEI number.

Every mobile phone has its own unique 15-digit code number

known as an IMEI number.

She said, "Do you think it could be mine?"

I said, "I think there's as much chance it might be as it might not,"

and it all sort of spiralled out of control from there, really.

The seller was listed and the name was there,

so I got my friend to put that into WhatsApp,

the number, and just message her to see if the phone was still available.

So when you put the number into WhatsApp and you send a message,

that person comes up on the WhatsApp chat, so that's how we started,

we started with this girl, asking about the phone and I said,

"Make it look like it is a real phone sale,

"just pretend to be a customer, someone who will come and buy the phone."

She looked familiar, somebody I may have seen,

but I thought, "There's millions of people."

Again, I screenshotted the photo and sent it to my boyfriend.

She sent me a photo of the person she thought might have took it

and I recognised the name that she sent with the photo.

So I rang her and said, "You're probably onto something here."

We'd located the girl on Facebook.

And then on her photos was the dad, saying Happy Fathers' Day,

and the dad had been in the pub with us that night,

so we totally knew it had to be her.

When I seen the photo of him, I felt disappointed,

because I've known the guy for quite a while.

I thought, "That's definitely it,"

cos he was the only one who was there that night

who I really I thought had took it.

The girl came back to reply to say that the phone wouldn't be

available to come and look at at the end of the day

so we'd have to act pretty fast,

and then she deleted the WhatsApp message

so you couldn't get back on it.

Then I suggested one of our colleagues phone.

He was really good on the phone, he was so, like, he was bartering with the woman,

even knocked it down to 80 quid.

I was like, no, just buy the phone!

Give her what she wants, just meet her.

So we arranged the meeting, arranged the time.

And the scene was sort of set.

The woman had said, who was selling the phone, had said she was sending her boyfriend to deliver it,

so we were to just give him the money.

So we decided to choose a meeting place

near to where we all worked so that we could get a few people together

but that was close enough to a police station as well,

so that if anything happened we'd run to the police station.

Three of us went and we met Gemma's partner there.

He was in his car with one of his friends who had come down,

just in case the numbers were against us

or in case it did go wrong.

Obviously, you've got these two girls

involved in this sort of dodgy phone sale, if you like,

and I was just really conscious of all of our safety.

That's what frightened me the most,

because you didn't know what to expect from the other person.

When he did turn up, my friend jumped out to meet the guy.

He was looking. He was like, "Oh, yeah, what's wrong with it, then?"

And he was just like biding his time, really.

My colleague had said,

"I'll give you a thumbs-up behind his back if it's the phone,"

and on his hand he'd written Gemma's IMEI number

of her mobile phone, the last four digits,

so that as he was looking at the phone, discreetly,

he'd be able to check the last four numbers and see if it tied up with

what was written on his hand.

He just played it dead cool, like nothing was going on,

and it was all running absolutely swimmingly.

He finally managed to get like sort of a sneak peek at the serial number

and the last four digits matched the last four digits of mine.

We see the thumb go up, so like, go.

My friend took the phone off him straight away,

gave it to Gemma.

And then, sort of, before you knew it we'd all piled back in

our own cars, I'd got the phone.

And we all just drove off, like madness, getaway cars.

And then we all just drove round the corner and that's when we pulled in

and just double-checked all the phone

and were sort of celebrating round the corner when we realised.

She just rang and she said, "Excuse me,

"did you just steal the phone from my boyfriend?"

I was like, "No, you stole the phone and we've just got it back."

I said, "I've got to go back to work. I'm on my dinner break."

Play detective on my dinner, I've not even had my dinner yet

and all this is going on.

And then when I came back into the pub

and explained the story to everybody, nobody could believe it.

So Gemma got her phone back, but as it was someone they knew,

they decided not to press charges.

I think a lot of other people in the pub were disgusted about it.

On the home screen, all you had to do was press the button

and there was a massive picture of me and my boyfriend on there.

And everyone knows us in the pub, so it wasn't like, oh, he found it,

he didn't know whose it was.

It was so obvious that that was our phone.