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Bag-snatchers, robberies and street crime. | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
According to the latest police figures, | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
more than 3,500 incidents of theft are reported every day in the UK. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:10 | |
Watching the CCTV back actually gets you angry, | 0:00:10 | 0:00:13 | |
because you feel you can't do anything. | 0:00:13 | 0:00:15 | |
But what happens to our belongings when they're stolen? | 0:00:15 | 0:00:18 | |
Thief Trackers shows who takes them and where they go. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:23 | |
Hiding trackers inside items like cameras, smartphones and bicycles, | 0:00:23 | 0:00:29 | |
to trace their every move. | 0:00:29 | 0:00:31 | |
The thieves think they've got away with it, | 0:00:31 | 0:00:33 | |
but we've got them under surveillance. | 0:00:33 | 0:00:35 | |
Using undercover footage, CCTV and tracking technology, | 0:00:40 | 0:00:44 | |
we'll get an insight into the criminal mind... | 0:00:44 | 0:00:46 | |
..and uncover the unseen journey that our possessions take | 0:00:48 | 0:00:51 | |
when they're stolen. | 0:00:51 | 0:00:52 | |
Today, the Thief Trackers are on the trail of a stolen handbag... | 0:01:03 | 0:01:07 | |
..following the footsteps of the thieves as they make their escape. | 0:01:09 | 0:01:13 | |
From the main road and he's going quite quick. | 0:01:13 | 0:01:15 | |
Plus, a man on a mission using technology to fight against crime... | 0:01:15 | 0:01:20 | |
We had so many people really, really upset. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
I just thought, "I've got to do something about this." | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
..helps track down crooks caught on camera. | 0:01:24 | 0:01:27 | |
He reaches into the fridge, grabs a bottle of cider | 0:01:27 | 0:01:30 | |
and as he turns round, | 0:01:30 | 0:01:31 | |
the cider's actually concealed down his shorts. | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
And man's best friend is on the trail of a petty thief. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
This is the man responsible for the burglaries, | 0:01:38 | 0:01:40 | |
so I shout to him, "Stop. | 0:01:40 | 0:01:42 | |
"Police officer with a dog. | 0:01:42 | 0:01:44 | |
"Stand still, or I'll release the dog." | 0:01:44 | 0:01:47 | |
Busy city centres are a magnet for opportunist thieves | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
intent on stealing your property... | 0:02:00 | 0:02:02 | |
..with over 400,000 personal theft incidents across Britain in 2015. | 0:02:03 | 0:02:08 | |
A moment's distraction is all it takes | 0:02:08 | 0:02:11 | |
for your belongings to be stolen, | 0:02:11 | 0:02:13 | |
and the thief to disappear into the crowds. | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
Helping the Thief Trackers with our investigation | 0:02:18 | 0:02:21 | |
is our specialist crime adviser, Alex Stewart. | 0:02:21 | 0:02:24 | |
He was assigned to some of the toughest areas of London, | 0:02:24 | 0:02:27 | |
both on patrol and as an undercover officer, | 0:02:27 | 0:02:30 | |
in his time on the force with the Metropolitan Police. | 0:02:30 | 0:02:33 | |
From theft to drugs to violent crime, | 0:02:33 | 0:02:36 | |
he's seen what life is like on the streets. | 0:02:36 | 0:02:38 | |
Thieves love the hustle and bustle of busy areas like this, | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
with lots of distractions and plenty of targets to choose from. | 0:02:45 | 0:02:49 | |
They often pick their victims carefully, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
targeting the young or the vulnerable. | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
And statistics show that women are twice as likely | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
to be the victims of theft as men. | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
We fitted a GPS tracker into a jewellery display box, | 0:02:59 | 0:03:02 | |
putting it in a handbag | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
along with a purse. If the bag is stolen, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:07 | |
we can follow the GPS signal on a tablet or smartphone | 0:03:07 | 0:03:11 | |
and track down the thieves. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:13 | |
Following their every move is the Thief Trackers' undercover team, | 0:03:16 | 0:03:20 | |
who will be mounting a covert surveillance operation. | 0:03:20 | 0:03:23 | |
For their safety, you won't see them, but you'll hear their voices. | 0:03:23 | 0:03:27 | |
Keep the camera on these guys. | 0:03:27 | 0:03:29 | |
One of the team sets up outside a cafe, | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
looking as if she's waiting for a friend, | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
busy on the phone with a bag at her feet, | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
like most of us have done. | 0:03:45 | 0:03:47 | |
The remaining Thief Trackers watch from nearby. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:50 | |
The tracker goes live. | 0:03:50 | 0:03:52 | |
Time to watch and wait. | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
And it's not long before there's interest in the bag. | 0:03:58 | 0:04:01 | |
That guy is having a look. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:02 | |
Those two there, they're together. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:07 | |
Despite the bag being just inches away from the thief tracker's feet, | 0:04:11 | 0:04:15 | |
it's being eyed up. | 0:04:15 | 0:04:16 | |
Yeah, I think we're on. | 0:04:16 | 0:04:18 | |
OK, let's go. | 0:04:22 | 0:04:23 | |
The GPS tracking signal shows the thief heading south with the | 0:04:25 | 0:04:29 | |
thief trackers close behind. | 0:04:29 | 0:04:30 | |
And here's the thief's friend. | 0:04:45 | 0:04:48 | |
The thief is further down the road. | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
One thief tracker holds back to avoid being recognised. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:00 | |
It was her bag that was stolen. | 0:05:00 | 0:05:02 | |
Our lead tracker carries on ahead, | 0:05:03 | 0:05:05 | |
following the GPS tracking signal and the thief. | 0:05:05 | 0:05:08 | |
But the thief has turned around. | 0:05:12 | 0:05:13 | |
And he's carrying our purse in his hand. | 0:05:15 | 0:05:17 | |
So, where is the bag and jewellery? | 0:05:23 | 0:05:25 | |
The thief meets up with his friend, and they walk off. | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
The thief trackers regroup to check the tracking signal | 0:05:39 | 0:05:41 | |
to see where the jewellery is. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:43 | |
And they double back to pick up the handbag. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
That's the bag there. | 0:05:54 | 0:05:55 | |
The crooks have dumped the bag as soon as they could, | 0:05:57 | 0:06:00 | |
but they've taken the purse and the jewellery out. | 0:06:00 | 0:06:02 | |
So, the bag... | 0:06:02 | 0:06:04 | |
..is taken, dumped in this bin, been emptied. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:11 | |
And they've taken the purse and the jewellery out and run off with it. | 0:06:11 | 0:06:16 | |
Because the tracker is in the jewellery box, | 0:06:17 | 0:06:20 | |
the team can continue to track its GPS signal | 0:06:20 | 0:06:22 | |
and follow the thieves' trail. | 0:06:22 | 0:06:24 | |
Later, the undercover team are on | 0:06:27 | 0:06:28 | |
the trail of the bag snatcher | 0:06:28 | 0:06:30 | |
and his partner in crime. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:31 | |
From the main road and he's going quite quick. | 0:06:31 | 0:06:34 | |
It's saying that we're right next to it now. | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
No matter how low-level the crime, | 0:06:44 | 0:06:46 | |
even petty theft can have a major impact on its victims. | 0:06:46 | 0:06:49 | |
Simon Gordon runs a busy wine bar in central London that became a hotspot | 0:06:51 | 0:06:55 | |
for thieves targeting his customers. | 0:06:55 | 0:06:57 | |
We had so many people really, really upset, handbags being stolen. | 0:06:59 | 0:07:03 | |
Had people cry... There was one woman, | 0:07:03 | 0:07:06 | |
at the time I remember it, she was crying for about an hour. | 0:07:06 | 0:07:09 | |
Really, really upset. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:10 | |
Although they had CCTV cameras to protect the clientele, | 0:07:10 | 0:07:14 | |
these criminals were rarely brought to justice. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
We'd spend a lot of time cutting the CCTV, | 0:07:17 | 0:07:19 | |
putting it onto a disk, and then | 0:07:19 | 0:07:20 | |
waiting for a police officer to come down. | 0:07:20 | 0:07:22 | |
It sometimes could be three weeks, sometimes a month. | 0:07:22 | 0:07:25 | |
Handed it to the police, and then you never heard anything else. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
It was just a waste of time. | 0:07:28 | 0:07:29 | |
I just thought, "I've got to do something about this," | 0:07:30 | 0:07:33 | |
and that's why I started Facewatch, | 0:07:33 | 0:07:34 | |
to try and stop crime in the wine bar. | 0:07:34 | 0:07:37 | |
The idea was to have one single system that could talk to all police | 0:07:37 | 0:07:40 | |
forces, and businesses could then just go online | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
to that same system and put the information in. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:45 | |
You'd just upload the clips of what happened, | 0:07:45 | 0:07:48 | |
somebody comes in, somebody steals something, somebody leaves. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:51 | |
And then you put a picture of the person that you think did the crime. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:55 | |
You do that, press the button and that goes to the police. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:58 | |
It's created a real public-private partnership, | 0:07:58 | 0:08:02 | |
working together and saying to the businesses, "Look, come on, | 0:08:02 | 0:08:05 | |
"we've got to give police the information | 0:08:05 | 0:08:07 | |
"in a format they can use and then | 0:08:07 | 0:08:09 | |
"they'll get on with doing what they're good at, | 0:08:09 | 0:08:11 | |
"which is solving crime." | 0:08:11 | 0:08:12 | |
Facewatch is used by 15 forces across the UK, | 0:08:14 | 0:08:18 | |
one of which is West Mercia Police, | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
who cover Malvern in the Worcestershire hills. | 0:08:20 | 0:08:23 | |
And it's a great help to local support officers | 0:08:23 | 0:08:26 | |
such as Lisa Freeman. | 0:08:26 | 0:08:27 | |
Facewatch was initially brought to our Chief Constable. | 0:08:27 | 0:08:30 | |
He was sent a letter asking if our force would be interested in it, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:33 | |
because we know that the | 0:08:33 | 0:08:34 | |
West Midlands Police have taken it on. | 0:08:34 | 0:08:37 | |
It was passed down through the powers that be down to myself. | 0:08:37 | 0:08:41 | |
So, basically, I'm the lead in it, | 0:08:41 | 0:08:43 | |
and I take it round to the shops, and the shops can then report crime | 0:08:43 | 0:08:48 | |
directly to the police, they can upload CCTV... | 0:08:48 | 0:08:50 | |
..and it cuts down from probably a 28-day period of process | 0:08:52 | 0:08:56 | |
to probably 20 minutes. | 0:08:56 | 0:08:58 | |
One business that took it up was Malvern Spring Services, | 0:08:58 | 0:09:01 | |
run by manager Claire Guy. | 0:09:01 | 0:09:03 | |
We're a petrol forecourt | 0:09:03 | 0:09:05 | |
that sell convenience goods. | 0:09:05 | 0:09:08 | |
We decided on accepting Facewatch | 0:09:08 | 0:09:10 | |
after a visit from our local CSO, Lisa Freeman. | 0:09:10 | 0:09:13 | |
There were quite a few of the local shops | 0:09:13 | 0:09:15 | |
that had actually been brought into it. | 0:09:15 | 0:09:17 | |
And they were glad they did when they noticed goods were going | 0:09:17 | 0:09:20 | |
missing on a regular basis. | 0:09:20 | 0:09:21 | |
And one man in particular, captured on their CCTV, caught their eye. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:27 | |
Watching the CCTV back and actually realising that it's the same person | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
reoffending actually gets you angrier the more you watch it, | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
the more times it happens, because you feel that you can't do anything. | 0:09:35 | 0:09:38 | |
The Texaco garage, they got in touch with me and said, | 0:09:40 | 0:09:42 | |
"Look, I've got this guy coming in regularly | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
"taking stuff from the store, | 0:09:44 | 0:09:45 | |
"only small quantities of stuff, | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
"but he's getting persistent now." | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
On numerous occasions he entered our store. | 0:09:52 | 0:09:54 | |
The same clothing was worn. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:56 | |
Green and white striped T-shirt, green and brown cargo shorts, | 0:09:56 | 0:10:01 | |
white trainers. | 0:10:01 | 0:10:02 | |
It can be really detrimental. | 0:10:03 | 0:10:05 | |
At the end of the day, we're letting goods walk out of the store that | 0:10:05 | 0:10:08 | |
aren't being paid for. | 0:10:08 | 0:10:09 | |
He would walk in and do certain things | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
in a certain way in every store. | 0:10:11 | 0:10:12 | |
Everybody... It was so recognisable. | 0:10:12 | 0:10:15 | |
He would go in and he would purchase a bag of crisps, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:18 | |
but he would walk out with a lot more stuff than that. | 0:10:18 | 0:10:21 | |
He entered the store early afternoon. | 0:10:22 | 0:10:25 | |
He then actually reaches into the fridge, | 0:10:25 | 0:10:28 | |
grabs a bottle of cider and as he turns round, | 0:10:28 | 0:10:31 | |
the cider's actually concealed down his shorts. | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
He then proceeds to speak to the cashier and then leaves the store. | 0:10:36 | 0:10:41 | |
But it wasn't only THIS petrol station that was being targeted. | 0:10:41 | 0:10:44 | |
We put him on the Wanted Gallery. | 0:10:44 | 0:10:46 | |
Every other shop that is on the same programme will get a copy of the | 0:10:46 | 0:10:50 | |
pictures, of the CCTV. | 0:10:50 | 0:10:52 | |
It kind of got spread around, | 0:10:52 | 0:10:53 | |
and then somebody else noticed that he'd been | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
in their store, and he'd been in another store. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
And then all of a sudden, somebody said, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:00 | |
"Actually, I know who that is." | 0:11:00 | 0:11:02 | |
One of our officers identified him. | 0:11:03 | 0:11:05 | |
And from that, | 0:11:05 | 0:11:06 | |
it expanded that he'd actually got a lot of outstanding | 0:11:06 | 0:11:11 | |
from different stores | 0:11:11 | 0:11:13 | |
in the Malvern, Ledbury, Hereford, Worcester area. | 0:11:13 | 0:11:18 | |
In the end, we ended up with 21 offences. | 0:11:19 | 0:11:21 | |
So it was a really good result. | 0:11:22 | 0:11:24 | |
The fact the CCTV has been so good - without that evidence, | 0:11:24 | 0:11:29 | |
you won't get a prosecution. | 0:11:29 | 0:11:30 | |
The thief was duly arrested and jailed. | 0:11:30 | 0:11:33 | |
Knowing that he was caught and that we'd played a part in it due to | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
uploading our CCTVs and statements, | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
actually gives you a feel-good factor, | 0:11:39 | 0:11:41 | |
the fact that he hasn't got away with it any more. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:44 | |
Join Facewatch. It's brilliant. | 0:11:44 | 0:11:46 | |
Without it, we wouldn't have caught the gentleman in question. | 0:11:47 | 0:11:52 | |
All good news for Simon and his team. | 0:11:52 | 0:11:55 | |
I'm absolutely passionate about it, because, you know, | 0:11:55 | 0:11:57 | |
I genuinely think we can reduce crime across the whole world. | 0:11:57 | 0:12:00 | |
And if you can reduce low-level crime, | 0:12:00 | 0:12:02 | |
it makes the whole place safer. | 0:12:02 | 0:12:04 | |
As petty theft often leads to more serious offences, | 0:12:04 | 0:12:07 | |
this could be a game-changer in the fight against crime. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:10 | |
Crime doesn't just happen in cities. | 0:12:15 | 0:12:18 | |
It happens in the country, as well. | 0:12:18 | 0:12:19 | |
Organised gangs regard building-site machinery as a prime target, | 0:12:24 | 0:12:29 | |
and the construction trade consider vehicle theft | 0:12:29 | 0:12:31 | |
as an occupational hazard. | 0:12:31 | 0:12:34 | |
Whether it's vans, telehandlers or diggers, | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
all are fair game to criminals. | 0:12:36 | 0:12:38 | |
It's a crime that costs UK businesses | 0:12:40 | 0:12:43 | |
over £800 million a year. | 0:12:43 | 0:12:44 | |
High-value plant machinery, often left on site and unattended, | 0:12:46 | 0:12:49 | |
is considered easy pickings to thieves. | 0:12:49 | 0:12:52 | |
One company was counting the cost | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
that this theft was having on their business. | 0:12:55 | 0:12:59 | |
I work for a | 0:13:01 | 0:13:03 | |
family-run plant-hire company. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
We service the utility industry... | 0:13:06 | 0:13:08 | |
..with all makes of construction equipment | 0:13:09 | 0:13:12 | |
from diggers, dumpers, forklifts, | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
pretty much everything you could ever need on a building project. | 0:13:15 | 0:13:18 | |
Certain people feel that because you're a big company, | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
you're insured, you're not really stealing from your average person, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
but it does actually affect us in a big way. | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
When I have something stolen, it's annoying. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:29 | |
It's downtime, plus the machine not out working, | 0:13:29 | 0:13:32 | |
which costs me a lot of money. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:34 | |
But Harry wasn't prepared to take being targeted by thieves | 0:13:34 | 0:13:37 | |
lying down, so his company invested in some trackers. | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
So I have tracking systems in all my machines now, and all my vans. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:44 | |
It can monitor absolutely everything that you need. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:47 | |
People know it's in there. | 0:13:47 | 0:13:48 | |
It says it's in there, and we thought it was well worth | 0:13:48 | 0:13:50 | |
putting into a lot of our equipment. | 0:13:50 | 0:13:52 | |
And as Harry's company was hiring out plant machinery throughout the | 0:13:52 | 0:13:55 | |
country, it wasn't long before the tracking devices | 0:13:55 | 0:13:57 | |
were put to the test. | 0:13:57 | 0:13:58 | |
I first received the call that the machine had been stolen. | 0:14:02 | 0:14:04 | |
It was a three-quarter-tonne Kubota, which is the smallest digger we run, | 0:14:04 | 0:14:08 | |
which is the micro-digger. | 0:14:08 | 0:14:10 | |
They had cut a hole in the fence... | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
..some time between nine o'clock at night | 0:14:16 | 0:14:18 | |
and six o'clock in the morning. | 0:14:18 | 0:14:20 | |
That was all I knew at that time | 0:14:22 | 0:14:23 | |
until I looked further into it on the tracker. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:26 | |
I monitored it, realised it was in a local area, | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
so I notified the police... | 0:14:31 | 0:14:33 | |
..and went to see if I could find it. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
When I was en route to find the stolen digger, | 0:14:40 | 0:14:43 | |
I was thinking, a little bit apprehension, | 0:14:43 | 0:14:46 | |
looking for... In case there were, obviously, criminals with it. | 0:14:46 | 0:14:49 | |
What would happen to me if I'm there | 0:14:51 | 0:14:53 | |
and if I try and confront them about | 0:14:53 | 0:14:54 | |
getting my digger back. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:55 | |
No sign of the actual machine itself, | 0:14:58 | 0:15:00 | |
so the police then contacted me and met me on site... | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
..to see if we could start looking for it. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
And the call came in to PC Craig Thomas, | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
who was first on the scene to track down this digger. | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
When we've arrived on the scene, | 0:15:14 | 0:15:15 | |
we've liaised with the victim and | 0:15:15 | 0:15:19 | |
gone into detail about the tracker. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:22 | |
I just informed them of all the information I had, | 0:15:22 | 0:15:24 | |
showed them the tracking system on my mobile phone. | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
They agreed with me it must have been in that area, | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
and then we just began | 0:15:29 | 0:15:30 | |
sort of having a look round, knocking on doors, | 0:15:30 | 0:15:33 | |
seeing if anyone's seen anything. | 0:15:33 | 0:15:35 | |
Other than a few parked vehicles... | 0:15:38 | 0:15:39 | |
..the car park and surrounding streets were empty. | 0:15:41 | 0:15:44 | |
So just how could a thief make a | 0:15:44 | 0:15:45 | |
three-quarter-tonne digger simply disappear? | 0:15:45 | 0:15:49 | |
Eagle-eyed Harry was about to get his answer. | 0:15:50 | 0:15:52 | |
I saw the van there. It looked out of place. | 0:15:54 | 0:15:57 | |
We sort of put two and two together and realised the van looked like | 0:15:57 | 0:16:01 | |
that was the most likely place it would be. | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
The suspension was very low. | 0:16:05 | 0:16:07 | |
I said to my colleague, | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
"The suspension's either broken or | 0:16:10 | 0:16:11 | |
"something is in the back of that van." | 0:16:11 | 0:16:13 | |
A few of the officers knocked on the doors. | 0:16:13 | 0:16:15 | |
It wasn't known to be normally parked in this cul-de-sac | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
that it was parked in. | 0:16:18 | 0:16:19 | |
We had a little look in the van. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:21 | |
We could see bits of digger equipment. | 0:16:21 | 0:16:24 | |
We arranged for recovery to come and | 0:16:27 | 0:16:29 | |
take the vehicle to their local yard, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
and as soon as they removed the | 0:16:32 | 0:16:33 | |
vehicle from the car park to the | 0:16:33 | 0:16:34 | |
main road, the app which the victim had, | 0:16:34 | 0:16:38 | |
the tracking device, actually moved | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
from the car park | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
onto the main road, | 0:16:42 | 0:16:45 | |
which gave us all the evidence we needed | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
that the stolen digger was in the back of the van. | 0:16:47 | 0:16:50 | |
I've not seen anything that accurate before, | 0:16:55 | 0:16:58 | |
so it was a massive tool for our | 0:16:58 | 0:16:59 | |
investigation and a great help. | 0:16:59 | 0:17:01 | |
When the police finally opened the van up and we found the | 0:17:01 | 0:17:03 | |
digger in there, it was a massive relief. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
We knew that we could get the machine back straightaway. | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
And it was just really nice to finally actually | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
get one up on the criminal for a change. | 0:17:12 | 0:17:14 | |
The van owner was arrested. But for Harry, | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
his investment in GPS technology had well and truly paid off. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:24 | |
Without the tracker in this instance, | 0:17:24 | 0:17:26 | |
we would have never got this machine back. | 0:17:26 | 0:17:29 | |
To anyone else looking to steal any of my equipment, beware, | 0:17:29 | 0:17:32 | |
because we've got trackers on everything. | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
We are returning to our covert surveillance operation | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
with the Thief Trackers undercover team. | 0:17:44 | 0:17:47 | |
Earlier on, the team set up outside a cafe on a busy junction close to a | 0:17:47 | 0:17:51 | |
train station. The thief trackers watched on | 0:17:51 | 0:17:54 | |
as a suspect emerged from the | 0:17:54 | 0:17:56 | |
crowds and snatched our handbag in broad daylight... | 0:17:56 | 0:18:00 | |
..then met up with his friend just around the corner, | 0:18:01 | 0:18:04 | |
unaware that in the stolen bag is a jewellery box | 0:18:04 | 0:18:07 | |
with a GPS tracker hidden inside. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:09 | |
They then dumped the bag in a bin... | 0:18:11 | 0:18:13 | |
That's the bag there. | 0:18:13 | 0:18:15 | |
..taking the jewellery box, | 0:18:15 | 0:18:16 | |
which was fitted with a tracker, out first. | 0:18:16 | 0:18:19 | |
It's been emptied. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:21 | |
The team are following the tracking signal | 0:18:27 | 0:18:29 | |
on their mobile phones, hot on the heels of the thieves. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
OK, so they came down here. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:35 | |
They carried on going up here. | 0:18:44 | 0:18:45 | |
They came down here. | 0:18:52 | 0:18:54 | |
It's saying that we're right next to it, now. | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
Right by Victoria Station. | 0:19:04 | 0:19:06 | |
As you can see, it's very close to where we are. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:17 | |
The signal hasn't moved, but with no sign of the thieves, | 0:19:22 | 0:19:25 | |
the team stake out the area to watch and wait for them to surface. | 0:19:25 | 0:19:29 | |
Suddenly, the tracker signal shows | 0:19:31 | 0:19:32 | |
the jewellery box is on the move again, | 0:19:32 | 0:19:34 | |
giving a position just yards around the corner. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
But we can't seem to find it, so we think | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
the item might have been dumped. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:51 | |
So we're just searching around now. | 0:19:51 | 0:19:54 | |
Round the bus station... | 0:19:54 | 0:19:55 | |
..to have a look. | 0:19:58 | 0:19:59 | |
At the moment, it's just kind of saying | 0:20:02 | 0:20:04 | |
it's in the middle of the road. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
The team have been searching now for | 0:20:06 | 0:20:07 | |
a good half-hour and there is no sign | 0:20:07 | 0:20:09 | |
of the jewellery box or the thieves, | 0:20:09 | 0:20:11 | |
but the tracker's signal is saying it's definitely here. | 0:20:11 | 0:20:15 | |
Anything over there? | 0:20:15 | 0:20:16 | |
I can see there is a buggy and a small mattress, | 0:20:17 | 0:20:20 | |
but I can't see our box or anything. | 0:20:20 | 0:20:23 | |
Because the area is surrounded by roads and passageways, | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
the team decide to check they're in the right place. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:33 | |
So they ask a security guard. | 0:20:33 | 0:20:34 | |
Let's see if there is anyone around to help us. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:39 | |
There might be someone that works in the bus garage. | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
They could have seen them or seen the item. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
My bag's just been stolen | 0:20:48 | 0:20:49 | |
and I've got a tracking thing saying it's here. | 0:20:49 | 0:20:53 | |
-Over there. -Is that over there? | 0:20:53 | 0:20:57 | |
Thank you. | 0:20:57 | 0:20:58 | |
The signal is still saying the | 0:20:58 | 0:21:00 | |
jewellery box is definitely here somewhere. | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
So we're going to go and have a look. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
It's saying it's here. There are bags, so they might have dumped it. | 0:21:09 | 0:21:14 | |
-Can't see anything here, can we? -No. | 0:21:29 | 0:21:32 | |
The team are scouring the area. | 0:21:33 | 0:21:35 | |
They're right on top of the tracking signal, | 0:21:35 | 0:21:37 | |
but can't find it hidden anywhere. | 0:21:37 | 0:21:40 | |
Thieves often stash stolen items in bins or rubbish to collect later. | 0:21:40 | 0:21:44 | |
It's saying that it's right beyond this wall here, | 0:21:45 | 0:21:50 | |
opposite the station. | 0:21:50 | 0:21:52 | |
It's not anywhere to be seen. | 0:21:52 | 0:21:54 | |
But underneath this road... | 0:21:54 | 0:21:55 | |
..is the train tracks. | 0:21:58 | 0:21:59 | |
So, it could have been dumped over the bridge and chucked. | 0:22:01 | 0:22:05 | |
It's hard to see here because there's railings and a big wall. | 0:22:05 | 0:22:11 | |
The thief trackers could go no further, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
because it was both illegal and dangerous | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
to venture onto the tracks | 0:22:15 | 0:22:17 | |
to find the stolen item. | 0:22:17 | 0:22:19 | |
But our crime expert, Alex Stewart, visited the scene. | 0:22:19 | 0:22:22 | |
It doesn't surprise me that the thieves have deposited the bag | 0:22:22 | 0:22:26 | |
and taken everything valuable out of it. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
They obviously like to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible. | 0:22:28 | 0:22:31 | |
Unfortunately, the tracking device in the jewellery box has led our | 0:22:31 | 0:22:35 | |
undercover team not to the thieves, but to this stretch of road, | 0:22:35 | 0:22:38 | |
which has a live railway line running underneath it. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
My expectation is the thieves have | 0:22:42 | 0:22:43 | |
thrown the jewellery box over the wall, | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
so that it's not discovered. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:46 | |
The thief and his friend may think they've got away with it, | 0:22:49 | 0:22:52 | |
but we still have unblurred footage of them in action, | 0:22:52 | 0:22:55 | |
which we're happy to share with the police | 0:22:55 | 0:22:56 | |
if they'd like to have a look. | 0:22:56 | 0:22:58 | |
SIREN WAILS | 0:23:04 | 0:23:08 | |
Many police forces across the UK | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
still use the more traditional method of | 0:23:10 | 0:23:12 | |
tracking criminals, so when a crimewave hit the town of Swindon, | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
the police turned to their canine section | 0:23:16 | 0:23:18 | |
to help track down the thieves. | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
I'm a dog handler within Wiltshire Police. | 0:23:21 | 0:23:23 | |
And I have a German shepherd who's four, | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
his birthday's in June and he's called Tyke. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
He's a really good police dog, but he also is really naughty. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:35 | |
But he does deliver the goods, so I can put up with his naughtiness. | 0:23:35 | 0:23:39 | |
And Tyke certainly delivered | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
when his tracking expertise was called on. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:44 | |
We'd been having a series of burglaries | 0:23:44 | 0:23:48 | |
at the early hours of the morning | 0:23:48 | 0:23:50 | |
on convenience stores where large amounts of cigarettes | 0:23:50 | 0:23:52 | |
were being stolen, | 0:23:52 | 0:23:53 | |
and this had been going on for several weeks. | 0:23:53 | 0:23:56 | |
When a call came in of a robbery in progress at a local Co-op store, | 0:23:56 | 0:24:01 | |
Tyke was on duty. | 0:24:01 | 0:24:02 | |
There was an immediate call on the radio. | 0:24:03 | 0:24:06 | |
I was thinking, | 0:24:08 | 0:24:09 | |
"Oh, this is another one of the series that's been happening." | 0:24:09 | 0:24:11 | |
So I thought there was a good chance we could get here and | 0:24:11 | 0:24:14 | |
they might still be here. | 0:24:14 | 0:24:15 | |
So in your head you're thinking, | 0:24:15 | 0:24:16 | |
"Am I going to be met by the people at the scene, will they be here, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:19 | |
"will they be gone?" | 0:24:19 | 0:24:20 | |
The damage was to the front of the building, | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
where something had been thrown through to gain access. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:27 | |
Inside, the shop had been ransacked, | 0:24:29 | 0:24:32 | |
and the kiosk area was totally trashed. | 0:24:32 | 0:24:36 | |
I heard on the radio that a response officer was already at the scene, | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
so I went into the property, | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
spoke with him and the owner of the property, | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
and they were viewing the CCTV. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
I took a quick look at that so I could look at | 0:24:48 | 0:24:50 | |
what the offenders look like | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
and then came back out to my vehicle to get Tyke and start tracking. | 0:24:52 | 0:24:55 | |
Once at the scene, Tyke picked up the scent of one of the thieves. | 0:24:59 | 0:25:03 | |
Once I'd got Tyke out tracking, | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
his head's gone down to the ground and his nose is on the ground. | 0:25:08 | 0:25:12 | |
He's pulling me along at quite some pace on the track. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:15 | |
So I know he's tracking a scent. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:19 | |
I'm thinking, "This could be those persons," | 0:25:19 | 0:25:21 | |
so I'm going to follow that track, | 0:25:21 | 0:25:24 | |
which we followed to the bottom of this road | 0:25:24 | 0:25:26 | |
and on into the estate at the end. | 0:25:26 | 0:25:28 | |
Halfway into the estate, | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
Tyke jumped up on top of the hedge with his front feet. | 0:25:34 | 0:25:37 | |
When Tyke finds property, he will hover over it | 0:25:40 | 0:25:42 | |
or he will freeze on it, | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
so he was basically saying to me, "There's something here, Mum, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
"you need to look at it." | 0:25:47 | 0:25:48 | |
Tyke has then located property which was stolen from the Co-op, | 0:25:51 | 0:25:56 | |
which was a duvet cover which was full of cigarettes. | 0:25:56 | 0:25:59 | |
Tyke's taken me in through the estate and round through to a wooded | 0:26:03 | 0:26:08 | |
little copse area, where I can no longer detect that he's tracking. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:12 | |
So in my head I'm thinking, "They've only come up to this point. | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
"So I need to work back into the estate | 0:26:18 | 0:26:20 | |
"to try and pick up the track to | 0:26:20 | 0:26:22 | |
"find where they've gone to ground." | 0:26:22 | 0:26:24 | |
Tyke had picked up a further track and located in two different gardens | 0:26:27 | 0:26:32 | |
items of clothing believed to be belonging to the offenders. | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
From there, we've tracked on, | 0:26:37 | 0:26:40 | |
and at this point, his head's come up and | 0:26:40 | 0:26:41 | |
his tail's gone up and I can see that his demeanour is changing. | 0:26:41 | 0:26:45 | |
I look around a little bend and I can see a person. | 0:26:48 | 0:26:52 | |
He had no shoes on, there was nobody else out | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
at this time of the morning. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:58 | |
I shout over to this guy, | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
"Excuse me, mate, can I just have a quick word?", | 0:27:03 | 0:27:06 | |
at which point he turns and starts to walk away. | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
I'm thinking, "This is the man responsible for the burglary." | 0:27:10 | 0:27:14 | |
So I shout to him, "Please stop, police officer with a dog. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:18 | |
"Stand still or I'll release the dog." | 0:27:18 | 0:27:20 | |
Because at this point I'm thinking, "He's going to run off." | 0:27:20 | 0:27:23 | |
He's started to quicken his pace. | 0:27:23 | 0:27:24 | |
He then turns round and faces me and Tyke, and I get closer and apprehend | 0:27:26 | 0:27:30 | |
him for the offence of the burglary. | 0:27:30 | 0:27:33 | |
And the evidence found by Tyke during the track | 0:27:33 | 0:27:36 | |
was integral to linking the thief to the robbery. | 0:27:36 | 0:27:38 | |
Forensics linked him with the glass from the scene | 0:27:40 | 0:27:44 | |
to glass that was located on his person following his arrest. | 0:27:44 | 0:27:48 | |
The thief was sentenced to eight months in prison. | 0:27:49 | 0:27:51 | |
Tyke got a reward for finding a prisoner-offender. | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
He got a venison leg, which is his favourite. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:59 | |
He's on a raw-food diet, so venison leg is a big treat. | 0:27:59 | 0:28:03 | |
That's a just reward for this expert tracker. | 0:28:03 | 0:28:06 |