Episode 10 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.

It's gone!

I don't want to lose this guy.

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've 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 on Thief Trackers, we look back at some

of the most shocking moments from the series,

showing just how thieves target your possessions,

stealing them if you take your eyes off them for a moment.

But we tracked the thieves down and confronted them.

Plus, investigators are on the hunt for a missing tractor,

stolen from a football club.

It was a bit of a shock.

The tractor was gone.

From 157 days of filming, and more than 250 hours of footage,

Thief Trackers has investigated the problem of personal theft.

We've seen tracking technology and dogged detective work.

I wonder if I could talk to you for a second?

-We've tracked down the thieves...

-Go, go, go.

..to their own back-yards.

Helping the Thief Trackers with their investigations

was 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.

Thieves steal from the rich, but they also steal from the poor,

meaning any of us can be targets.

They're waiting and watching to take whatever they fancy.

And it's all in a day's work for the opportunist thief.

We fitted GPS trackers into a number of items, including a laptop,

a camera and a bike.

So if they're stolen, we can follow the satellite signal on a smartphone

or a tablet and track down the thief.

Following the thieves' every move is the Thief Trackers undercover team,

who mounted our covert surveillance operations.

Our research showed that bike theft is a major problem in Britain,

with one bicycle stolen every 90 seconds,

even when they're securely locked up.

So we put this to the test.

Our undercover team hid a tracker in a bike,

and they used a heavy-duty lock to secure it to some railings,

like we all do.

TRACKER BEEPS

And once night fell,

we didn't have long to wait until the bike attracted interest.

Even though the bike was securely locked up,

they ripped it from the railings,

using a classic bike thieves' technique.

And the Thief Trackers were hot on their heels,

following them as they headed north.

No.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

The gang who took the bike were tracked to

this North London housing estate, and the tracker signal said

it was definitely there.

The team staked out the estate overnight,

but there was no sign of the gang.

So they decided to leaflet the area about their bike,

hoping to spook the thief into making a move.

And the tactics worked, as the tracker showed the bike

was on the move, with Thief Trackers in pursuit.

The GPS signal from the bike led the undercover team

to another North London housing estate, just two miles away.

This is the building

where I believe our bike is at the moment.

Let's head upstairs.

Let's try this first floor, see if it's here.

There's a bike.

All right, we're getting really close to where

the tracker thinks it is.

It's either here or the floor below.

One of these houses has the bike, definitely.

We need to get in the car

and stake it out a little bit.

And the long wait paid off, when they see what they thought

might be one of the gang who stole the bike.

You're pretty sure it's him?

I'd say I'm 95% sure.

I think this young guy is not the guy that took the bike,

but definitely involved with that group.

It's interesting though. It means that either he's now got it,

or the guy who did take it is still in the building as well,

because the tracker says it's still here.

There were no further sightings.

But the team kept watching.

That's the bike! That's the bike! That's the bike!

OK.

Because they're not the police, they can only approach the boy,

who was walking with his mother, to ask him if he'd seen a stolen bike.

I don't know if you've seen my bike around recently?

I lost it in this area. It's a bit like this one.

Yeah, it's a bit like that one, with these kind of handlebars.

Have you seen it?

It's your friend's?

Do you know where he maybe possibly got it from?

It's his bike?

No, no. It's all right. Basically, I thought it looks a bit like my bike

that went missing.

I just had a bike that went missing recently in this area.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I would never say it was your...

Yeah.

All right.

Both the boy and his mother claim he has not had anything to do with it.

But we still have the unblurred footage of the crime,

which we're happy to show to the police.

Not long after that conversation, our tracking device went dead.

The likely scenario is that they've stripped the bike down,

found it and discarded it somewhere.

But you can make it more difficult for the thieves to steal your bike

by taking some simple precautions.

Always invest in the best lock you can afford,

leave it chained in a busy area,

and, if possible, choose somewhere covered by CCTV.

We looked at how the thieves operate across Britain and it showed that

criminals choose their targets, often young females and males,

in busy city centres,

where, with so much going on, people can be easily distracted.

These thieves often work in gangs

and can move your stolen items ou of the area within minutes,

by handing them to a second person, who spirits them away.

We put it to the test and sent our undercover team out to mount

a surveillance operation outside a cafe on a busy city street.

One of the Thief Trackers had a camera in a bag at their feet,

like we all do. Except this camera is fitted with a GPS tracker.

OK everyone, here we go.

And whilst distracted on the phone, this happened.

He's on a bike! He is on a bike!

Not able to catch up with the thief on foot,

the thief tracking team jumped in a cab.

OK, so we're following a tracker right now.

There a bag that's been stolen.

Can you give you directions that you can follow for us?

Thank you, mate. He is now in an estate just off Page Street.

Marsham Street at the moment.

So he's obviously still cycling.

He's crossing Lambeth Bridge.

We're close. He's on the bridge, definitely on the bridge.

Keep an eye out for a blue bike.

-There he is, there he is, there he is.

-Right there.

That's him there. That's him there on the bike, right there.

So, let's keep an eye on this guy. Keep him close.

Don't let him see the cameras, boys.

Let's keep following. Just keep following.

We're going to maybe talk to this guy in a minute.

Next to that blue pub up there.

The team saw the thief pass the bike to someone in a car.

But first, they were going to tackle the thief.

All right. Here we go.

A potentially risky situation.

It's too dangerous to accuse the man of stealing.

-He's taken the bag.

-They're not the police,

so they can only ask if he's seen the stolen camera bag.

Sorry to bother you.

He brazenly denied taking the camera,

but they saw him pass it to someone in the car,

so they challenge the driver.

Excuse me.

Right.

The undercover team saw the thief passing the camera bag

to the woman in the car. But as she denied all knowledge,

they couldn't push this any further.

But the tracking signal showed the camera on the move again,

going a short distance to Lambeth North tube station.

Then popping up in the West End of London,

where the signal finally went dead.

It's more than likely that the tracker was found in the camera bag

and destroyed.

The speed at which the camera left the area shows how quickly

our possessions can disappear.

It also demonstrates how gangs operate as a team,

using one person to steal an item and another to move it on.

Now, it doesn't surprise me that the camera ended up here

in the back streets of the West End,

where there are plenty of opportunities to sell it for cash.

We still have the unblurred footage of the thief and his friend,

should the police want to take a look.

The advice is to always keep bags and cameras strapped to the front

of your body when you're out and about.

And be aware of who is around you at all times.

But it's not just in cities where crime is committed.

Rural areas are targeted, too.

Often, the thieves look for what they think will be easy targets

with high rewards.

Evesham United Football Club was formed just after

the Second World War by soldiers returning from the front.

Today, it's still the heart of the community

and is mostly run by volunteers.

We have approximately 28 to 30 teams using the ground every week

for training and matches.

The main part of the club is the kids.

The majority of the kids,

they come here at four or five and they're with this until 16, 17, 18.

And hopefully, one of them, or maybe two or three,

just might make it to the first team.

We've gone from just one pitch to having 12 pitches.

Keeping the pitches in perfect shape is a full-time job

and one that this man takes pride in.

I love the job, yes.

I wouldn't be without it.

I do have my moans about it, but I just couldn't take it

away from here. I just love coming here.

I do like going up and down on the tractor.

Not so much in the winter when it's a bit cold.

To make his job easier, the club bought him

the best they could afford.

Oh, the tractor

and the mower combined I think is mid-20s.

About £25,000 altogether for the package.

A lot of money for a club like this, yeah.

Because their tractor had been stolen once before,

the club decided to protect their investment.

It's the location, you know. It's away from the town.

It's on the main trunk road.

I felt it was imperative that we had a tracker fitted.

These vehicles sometimes aren't insured.

So, just to invest £250 in a tracker

to see the safe return of your asset

is a massive and very significant investment.

They were about to discover the benefits of a tracker

when the tractor was stolen again.

I usually get in round about eight o'clock.

When I came past and the gates were open,

that set the alarm bells ringing straightaway.

I had a look around for the lock. No sign of the lock.

Proceeded down the driveway.

I could see, obviously, the fencing and everything had been moved.

The barriers moved and everything.

I thought it might have just been kids,

so it wasn't until I walked up there and could see all the tyre marks

of different vehicles and everything,

I started to put two and two together.

Well, I could see the tracks obviously going around behind

the fence, you know, behind the main pitch and everything.

So, straightaway, I think, yeah, tractor's gone missing again.

And it was a question of just going round to the compound, checking it.

Just opened up the container and the tractor was gone.

Bit of a shock.

So, straight on the phone to the chairman.

I had a phone call from Nigel Gregg, the groundsman,

to inform me that the tractor had gone again.

So then my first job is to ring Tracker,

then the police... and then they liaise.

It's about 8:30 in the morning when

Mr Cockerton realised that the vehicle had gone.

He contacted the tracker control desk and we were able

to activate it very quickly.

The unit acknowledged within seconds.

MACHINE BEEPS

We were able to see on our GPS satellite maps

where it actually was.

We then deployed a police vehicle from West Mercia Police

to the location

and the vehicle was successfully recovered, free of damage.

It was found round about eight miles from where it was stolen,

so we suspect it was probably

someone in that local area who knew that the tractor

was there and decided to remove it to a place where they were

later going to move it, on and we do tend to see a lot of these vehicles

moved to the ports, put in steel containers

and moved abroad to places

like Africa, India and the Far East.

We knew where the tractor was the same morning.

And we got it back here at around about one o'clock.

It was a really good feeling to be able to get on there,

drive it back and we would be able

to start using it again almost as soon

as we got back to the club.

I don't think we would have got the tractor back possibly without

that tracker fitted to it.

Getting your car stolen is a rare occurrence these days,

with the figures showing a sharp drop in car theft.

But many of us still leave items

like phones, purses and laptops in our cars,

making tempting targets for the thieves,

and theft from a car is still

one of the most reported crimes in the UK.

And to show just how determined the criminals can be,

we fitted a laptop with a tracker.

If stolen, we can use the GPS signal to follow where it goes

and track down the thieves.

We then left it on the back-seat of this car,

just as anyone would do if they leave the car parked,

forgetting it was there.

The Thief Trackers undercover team rigged the car

with hidden cameras to catch any unsuspecting thief in action.

So we're going to park the car up in a location in east London.

It's an up-and-coming area but still subject to very high levels

of vehicle crime - in fact, the highest levels in London.

They parked the car with the laptop containing a tracker in the street

and then sat back to watch and wait.

And it wasn't long before there was some interest.

That's an attempted theft, right there.

The Thief Tracker team picked up the trail of the thief

from the GPS signal on the tracker.

All right, go straight down here.

See, he's taking this route and then

when you get to the end, he's gone left.

Right, so we've got a single yellow line here

and a load of parking bays up there,

so given that this is a dead end,

I think what's happened is he must have

parked his vehicle up somewhere and then continued on foot

to one of the bus stops that we've got up here,

so we're going to need to get back into the vehicle,

check on what the tracker is doing and see if we can get

behind him again.

So you're going to be taking this exit here and he's on West Ham Lane,

heading northbound.

And then after that there's a number of buildings,

and I think he's probably gone to ground in one of those.

This large building is the location of the laptop.

We know that the laptop is in there at the moment.

What we need to do now is get out of here before we attract any attention

to ourselves. We'll stake out this location and wait for the laptop

to move again.

The signal didn't move for several hours.

-Coming up again.

-But during the night shift,

the tracker sprung into life.

They staked out the house but the signal didn't move,

so they watched and waited.

The next day the tracker still hadn't moved,

so the team decided to return to the area where the laptop was stolen

to check whether it was the thief's regular hunting ground.

That looks like the car.

Yeah.

That's not the same numberplate.

-I think it's two numberplates.

-It could be.

That second numberplate, that could be...

a fake one on top, it could be a clone.

Look at these guys.

There's definitely something going on down there.

I think we should leave.

The Thief Tracker team decided to withdraw for their own safety.

The undercover team spent two weeks staking out this area and there was

no sign of the thief, even though his car was still here.

What they did notice was that his vehicle was bearing false plates.

They were stuck over to conceal what was underneath.

Now, there is no good reason for a vehicle to

conceal its true identity.

With the tracker signal having gone dead and no sign of the thief,

the undercover team sadly had to call it a day.

But the crook hasn't won,

as we have his theft on camera and can show the police who he is.

We all leave our cars parked up

on streets at one time or another,

and the best way of avoiding being broken into

is to not leave anything on view.

Either hide it in the glove compartment

or take it with you, and always try to park in a busy, well-lit area.

The top area for thieves to target are busy transport hubs,

because of the sheer volume of people passing through every day.

The more people, the more potential victims.

Once they've committed the crimes, the crooks can use the large crowd

to melt in to and get clean away.

One of the team took a position outside a mainline station

with a personal computer known as a tablet,

which has been fitted with a tracker in the pocket of his rucksack.

He placed it at his side, as any one of us might do.

With the team watching nearby...

-OK, we're on.

-..the tracker went live.

Will he stop? No.

Yeah.

Hold on, I've seen this guy before.

And it was the same man, back again.

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

The Thief Trackers went on his trail.

Although the signal from the tracker showed where the thief was heading,

the team needed to know that they were going to stop the right man,

so they check the footage to see what he looked like.

Right.

That way to the right.

Stopping and questioning any thief is a potentially risky business.

No. You can check me. I have no tablet.

-Samsung tablet?

-No, man.

He hadn't got the tablet on him and he denied stealing it,

but we knew he'd took it.

-Not a white tablet?

-You can check my bag, you can check my bag.

OK, no worries.

We caught up with the thief, but not the stolen tablet,

but the tracking signal was still live,

showing the tablet was somewhere nearby.

The tablet was definitely around this area,

so the team searched thoroughly.

Oh!

-Found it.

-That's amazing.

-Wow, one for the tracking squad, right?

-Yeah.

Trackers one, robbers nil.

It's a great result, and our hidden cameras

captured the thief in action,

footage we can share with the police.

With amazing tracking technology

we've shown how easily and quickly

your property can be stolen and what happens to it

once a crook has got their hands on it.

Your local police website is a great source of more information

about how to keep your possessions safe,

and if you have a valuable item,

a tracking device can be an option.

With prices ranging from £15 to over £500, depending on the type.

And finally, most opportunist thieves are looking

for the easiest target,

so just take steps to make it more difficult for them to choose you.