Episode 9 Thief Trackers


Episode 9

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Bag-snatchers, robberies and street crime.

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According to the latest police figures,

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more than 3,500 incidents of theft are reported every day in the UK.

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Watching the CCTV back actually gets you angry,

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because you feel you can't do anything.

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

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Thief Trackers shows who takes them and where they go.

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Hiding trackers inside items like cameras, smartphones and bicycles,

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to trace their every move.

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The thieves think they've got away with it,

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but we've got them under surveillance.

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Using undercover footage, CCTV and tracking technology,

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we'll get an insight into the criminal mind...

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..and uncover the unseen journey that our possessions take

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when they're stolen.

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Today, the Thief Trackers are on the trail of a stolen handbag...

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..following the footsteps of the thieves as they make their escape.

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From the main road and he's going quite quick.

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Plus, a man on a mission using technology to fight against crime...

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We had so many people really, really upset.

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I just thought, "I've got to do something about this."

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..helps track down crooks caught on camera.

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He reaches into the fridge, grabs a bottle of cider

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and as he turns round,

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the cider's actually concealed down his shorts.

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And man's best friend is on the trail of a petty thief.

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This is the man responsible for the burglaries,

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so I shout to him, "Stop.

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"Police officer with a dog.

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"Stand still, or I'll release the dog."

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Busy city centres are a magnet for opportunist thieves

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intent on stealing your property...

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..with over 400,000 personal theft incidents across Britain in 2015.

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A moment's distraction is all it takes

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for your belongings to be stolen,

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and the thief to disappear into the crowds.

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Helping the Thief Trackers with our investigation

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is our specialist crime adviser, Alex Stewart.

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

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both on patrol and as an undercover officer,

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in his time on the force with the Metropolitan Police.

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From theft to drugs to violent crime,

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he's seen what life is like on the streets.

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Thieves love the hustle and bustle of busy areas like this,

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with lots of distractions and plenty of targets to choose from.

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They often pick their victims carefully,

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targeting the young or the vulnerable.

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And statistics show that women are twice as likely

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to be the victims of theft as men.

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We fitted a GPS tracker into a jewellery display box,

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putting it in a handbag

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along with a purse. If the bag is stolen,

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we can follow the GPS signal on a tablet or smartphone

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and track down the thieves.

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

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who will be mounting a covert surveillance operation.

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For their safety, you won't see them, but you'll hear their voices.

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Keep the camera on these guys.

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One of the team sets up outside a cafe,

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looking as if she's waiting for a friend,

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busy on the phone with a bag at her feet,

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like most of us have done.

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The remaining Thief Trackers watch from nearby.

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The tracker goes live.

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Time to watch and wait.

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And it's not long before there's interest in the bag.

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That guy is having a look.

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Those two there, they're together.

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Despite the bag being just inches away from the thief tracker's feet,

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it's being eyed up.

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Yeah, I think we're on.

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OK, let's go.

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The GPS tracking signal shows the thief heading south with the

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thief trackers close behind.

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And here's the thief's friend.

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The thief is further down the road.

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One thief tracker holds back to avoid being recognised.

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It was her bag that was stolen.

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Our lead tracker carries on ahead,

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following the GPS tracking signal and the thief.

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But the thief has turned around.

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And he's carrying our purse in his hand.

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So, where is the bag and jewellery?

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The thief meets up with his friend, and they walk off.

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The thief trackers regroup to check the tracking signal

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to see where the jewellery is.

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And they double back to pick up the handbag.

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That's the bag there.

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The crooks have dumped the bag as soon as they could,

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but they've taken the purse and the jewellery out.

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So, the bag...

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..is taken, dumped in this bin, been emptied.

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And they've taken the purse and the jewellery out and run off with it.

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Because the tracker is in the jewellery box,

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the team can continue to track its GPS signal

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and follow the thieves' trail.

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Later, the undercover team are on

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the trail of the bag snatcher

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and his partner in crime.

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From the main road and he's going quite quick.

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It's saying that we're right next to it now.

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No matter how low-level the crime,

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even petty theft can have a major impact on its victims.

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Simon Gordon runs a busy wine bar in central London that became a hotspot

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for thieves targeting his customers.

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We had so many people really, really upset, handbags being stolen.

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Had people cry... There was one woman,

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at the time I remember it, she was crying for about an hour.

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Really, really upset.

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Although they had CCTV cameras to protect the clientele,

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these criminals were rarely brought to justice.

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We'd spend a lot of time cutting the CCTV,

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putting it onto a disk, and then

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waiting for a police officer to come down.

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It sometimes could be three weeks, sometimes a month.

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Handed it to the police, and then you never heard anything else.

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It was just a waste of time.

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I just thought, "I've got to do something about this,"

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and that's why I started Facewatch,

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to try and stop crime in the wine bar.

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The idea was to have one single system that could talk to all police

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forces, and businesses could then just go online

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to that same system and put the information in.

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You'd just upload the clips of what happened,

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somebody comes in, somebody steals something, somebody leaves.

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And then you put a picture of the person that you think did the crime.

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You do that, press the button and that goes to the police.

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It's created a real public-private partnership,

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working together and saying to the businesses, "Look, come on,

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"we've got to give police the information

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"in a format they can use and then

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"they'll get on with doing what they're good at,

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"which is solving crime."

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Facewatch is used by 15 forces across the UK,

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one of which is West Mercia Police,

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who cover Malvern in the Worcestershire hills.

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And it's a great help to local support officers

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such as Lisa Freeman.

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Facewatch was initially brought to our Chief Constable.

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He was sent a letter asking if our force would be interested in it,

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because we know that the

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West Midlands Police have taken it on.

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It was passed down through the powers that be down to myself.

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So, basically, I'm the lead in it,

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and I take it round to the shops, and the shops can then report crime

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directly to the police, they can upload CCTV...

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..and it cuts down from probably a 28-day period of process

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to probably 20 minutes.

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One business that took it up was Malvern Spring Services,

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run by manager Claire Guy.

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We're a petrol forecourt

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that sell convenience goods.

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We decided on accepting Facewatch

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after a visit from our local CSO, Lisa Freeman.

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There were quite a few of the local shops

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that had actually been brought into it.

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And they were glad they did when they noticed goods were going

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missing on a regular basis.

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And one man in particular, captured on their CCTV, caught their eye.

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Watching the CCTV back and actually realising that it's the same person

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reoffending actually gets you angrier the more you watch it,

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the more times it happens, because you feel that you can't do anything.

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The Texaco garage, they got in touch with me and said,

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"Look, I've got this guy coming in regularly

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"taking stuff from the store,

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"only small quantities of stuff,

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"but he's getting persistent now."

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On numerous occasions he entered our store.

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The same clothing was worn.

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Green and white striped T-shirt, green and brown cargo shorts,

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white trainers.

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It can be really detrimental.

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At the end of the day, we're letting goods walk out of the store that

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aren't being paid for.

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He would walk in and do certain things

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in a certain way in every store.

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Everybody... It was so recognisable.

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He would go in and he would purchase a bag of crisps,

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but he would walk out with a lot more stuff than that.

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He entered the store early afternoon.

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He then actually reaches into the fridge,

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grabs a bottle of cider and as he turns round,

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the cider's actually concealed down his shorts.

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He then proceeds to speak to the cashier and then leaves the store.

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But it wasn't only THIS petrol station that was being targeted.

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We put him on the Wanted Gallery.

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Every other shop that is on the same programme will get a copy of the

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pictures, of the CCTV.

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It kind of got spread around,

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and then somebody else noticed that he'd been

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in their store, and he'd been in another store.

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And then all of a sudden, somebody said,

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"Actually, I know who that is."

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One of our officers identified him.

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And from that,

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it expanded that he'd actually got a lot of outstanding

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from different stores

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in the Malvern, Ledbury, Hereford, Worcester area.

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In the end, we ended up with 21 offences.

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So it was a really good result.

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The fact the CCTV has been so good - without that evidence,

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you won't get a prosecution.

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The thief was duly arrested and jailed.

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Knowing that he was caught and that we'd played a part in it due to

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uploading our CCTVs and statements,

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actually gives you a feel-good factor,

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the fact that he hasn't got away with it any more.

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Join Facewatch. It's brilliant.

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Without it, we wouldn't have caught the gentleman in question.

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All good news for Simon and his team.

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I'm absolutely passionate about it, because, you know,

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I genuinely think we can reduce crime across the whole world.

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And if you can reduce low-level crime,

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it makes the whole place safer.

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As petty theft often leads to more serious offences,

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this could be a game-changer in the fight against crime.

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Crime doesn't just happen in cities.

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It happens in the country, as well.

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Organised gangs regard building-site machinery as a prime target,

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and the construction trade consider vehicle theft

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as an occupational hazard.

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Whether it's vans, telehandlers or diggers,

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all are fair game to criminals.

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It's a crime that costs UK businesses

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over £800 million a year.

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High-value plant machinery, often left on site and unattended,

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is considered easy pickings to thieves.

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One company was counting the cost

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that this theft was having on their business.

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I work for a

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family-run plant-hire company.

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We service the utility industry...

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..with all makes of construction equipment

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from diggers, dumpers, forklifts,

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pretty much everything you could ever need on a building project.

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Certain people feel that because you're a big company,

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you're insured, you're not really stealing from your average person,

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but it does actually affect us in a big way.

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When I have something stolen, it's annoying.

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It's downtime, plus the machine not out working,

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which costs me a lot of money.

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But Harry wasn't prepared to take being targeted by thieves

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lying down, so his company invested in some trackers.

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So I have tracking systems in all my machines now, and all my vans.

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It can monitor absolutely everything that you need.

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People know it's in there.

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It says it's in there, and we thought it was well worth

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putting into a lot of our equipment.

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And as Harry's company was hiring out plant machinery throughout the

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country, it wasn't long before the tracking devices

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were put to the test.

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I first received the call that the machine had been stolen.

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It was a three-quarter-tonne Kubota, which is the smallest digger we run,

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which is the micro-digger.

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They had cut a hole in the fence...

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..some time between nine o'clock at night

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and six o'clock in the morning.

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That was all I knew at that time

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until I looked further into it on the tracker.

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I monitored it, realised it was in a local area,

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so I notified the police...

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..and went to see if I could find it.

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When I was en route to find the stolen digger,

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I was thinking, a little bit apprehension,

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looking for... In case there were, obviously, criminals with it.

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What would happen to me if I'm there

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and if I try and confront them about

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getting my digger back.

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No sign of the actual machine itself,

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so the police then contacted me and met me on site...

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..to see if we could start looking for it.

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And the call came in to PC Craig Thomas,

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who was first on the scene to track down this digger.

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When we've arrived on the scene,

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we've liaised with the victim and

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gone into detail about the tracker.

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I just informed them of all the information I had,

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showed them the tracking system on my mobile phone.

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They agreed with me it must have been in that area,

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and then we just began

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sort of having a look round, knocking on doors,

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seeing if anyone's seen anything.

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Other than a few parked vehicles...

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..the car park and surrounding streets were empty.

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So just how could a thief make a

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three-quarter-tonne digger simply disappear?

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Eagle-eyed Harry was about to get his answer.

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I saw the van there. It looked out of place.

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We sort of put two and two together and realised the van looked like

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that was the most likely place it would be.

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The suspension was very low.

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I said to my colleague,

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"The suspension's either broken or

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"something is in the back of that van."

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A few of the officers knocked on the doors.

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It wasn't known to be normally parked in this cul-de-sac

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that it was parked in.

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We had a little look in the van.

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We could see bits of digger equipment.

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We arranged for recovery to come and

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take the vehicle to their local yard,

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and as soon as they removed the

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vehicle from the car park to the

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main road, the app which the victim had,

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the tracking device, actually moved

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from the car park

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onto the main road,

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which gave us all the evidence we needed

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that the stolen digger was in the back of the van.

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I've not seen anything that accurate before,

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so it was a massive tool for our

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investigation and a great help.

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When the police finally opened the van up and we found the

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digger in there, it was a massive relief.

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We knew that we could get the machine back straightaway.

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And it was just really nice to finally actually

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get one up on the criminal for a change.

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The van owner was arrested. But for Harry,

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his investment in GPS technology had well and truly paid off.

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Without the tracker in this instance,

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we would have never got this machine back.

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To anyone else looking to steal any of my equipment, beware,

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because we've got trackers on everything.

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We are returning to our covert surveillance operation

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with the Thief Trackers undercover team.

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Earlier on, the team set up outside a cafe on a busy junction close to a

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train station. The thief trackers watched on

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as a suspect emerged from the

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crowds and snatched our handbag in broad daylight...

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..then met up with his friend just around the corner,

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unaware that in the stolen bag is a jewellery box

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with a GPS tracker hidden inside.

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They then dumped the bag in a bin...

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That's the bag there.

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..taking the jewellery box,

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which was fitted with a tracker, out first.

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It's been emptied.

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The team are following the tracking signal

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on their mobile phones, hot on the heels of the thieves.

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OK, so they came down here.

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They carried on going up here.

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They came down here.

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It's saying that we're right next to it, now.

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Right by Victoria Station.

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As you can see, it's very close to where we are.

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The signal hasn't moved, but with no sign of the thieves,

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the team stake out the area to watch and wait for them to surface.

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Suddenly, the tracker signal shows

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the jewellery box is on the move again,

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giving a position just yards around the corner.

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But we can't seem to find it, so we think

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the item might have been dumped.

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So we're just searching around now.

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Round the bus station...

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..to have a look.

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At the moment, it's just kind of saying

0:20:020:20:04

it's in the middle of the road.

0:20:040:20:06

The team have been searching now for

0:20:060:20:07

a good half-hour and there is no sign

0:20:070:20:09

of the jewellery box or the thieves,

0:20:090:20:11

but the tracker's signal is saying it's definitely here.

0:20:110:20:15

Anything over there?

0:20:150:20:16

I can see there is a buggy and a small mattress,

0:20:170:20:20

but I can't see our box or anything.

0:20:200:20:23

Because the area is surrounded by roads and passageways,

0:20:260:20:29

the team decide to check they're in the right place.

0:20:290:20:33

So they ask a security guard.

0:20:330:20:34

Let's see if there is anyone around to help us.

0:20:360:20:39

There might be someone that works in the bus garage.

0:20:390:20:42

They could have seen them or seen the item.

0:20:420:20:44

My bag's just been stolen

0:20:480:20:49

and I've got a tracking thing saying it's here.

0:20:490:20:53

-Over there.

-Is that over there?

0:20:530:20:57

Thank you.

0:20:570:20:58

The signal is still saying the

0:20:580:21:00

jewellery box is definitely here somewhere.

0:21:000:21:03

So we're going to go and have a look.

0:21:030:21:06

It's saying it's here. There are bags, so they might have dumped it.

0:21:090:21:14

-Can't see anything here, can we?

-No.

0:21:290:21:32

The team are scouring the area.

0:21:330:21:35

They're right on top of the tracking signal,

0:21:350:21:37

but can't find it hidden anywhere.

0:21:370:21:40

Thieves often stash stolen items in bins or rubbish to collect later.

0:21:400:21:44

It's saying that it's right beyond this wall here,

0:21:450:21:50

opposite the station.

0:21:500:21:52

It's not anywhere to be seen.

0:21:520:21:54

But underneath this road...

0:21:540:21:55

..is the train tracks.

0:21:580:21:59

So, it could have been dumped over the bridge and chucked.

0:22:010:22:05

It's hard to see here because there's railings and a big wall.

0:22:050:22:11

The thief trackers could go no further,

0:22:110:22:13

because it was both illegal and dangerous

0:22:130:22:15

to venture onto the tracks

0:22:150:22:17

to find the stolen item.

0:22:170:22:19

But our crime expert, Alex Stewart, visited the scene.

0:22:190:22:22

It doesn't surprise me that the thieves have deposited the bag

0:22:220:22:26

and taken everything valuable out of it.

0:22:260:22:28

They obviously like to get rid of the evidence as quickly as possible.

0:22:280:22:31

Unfortunately, the tracking device in the jewellery box has led our

0:22:310:22:35

undercover team not to the thieves, but to this stretch of road,

0:22:350:22:38

which has a live railway line running underneath it.

0:22:380:22:42

My expectation is the thieves have

0:22:420:22:43

thrown the jewellery box over the wall,

0:22:430:22:45

so that it's not discovered.

0:22:450:22:46

The thief and his friend may think they've got away with it,

0:22:490:22:52

but we still have unblurred footage of them in action,

0:22:520:22:55

which we're happy to share with the police

0:22:550:22:56

if they'd like to have a look.

0:22:560:22:58

SIREN WAILS

0:23:040:23:08

Many police forces across the UK

0:23:080:23:10

still use the more traditional method of

0:23:100:23:12

tracking criminals, so when a crimewave hit the town of Swindon,

0:23:120:23:16

the police turned to their canine section

0:23:160:23:18

to help track down the thieves.

0:23:180:23:21

I'm a dog handler within Wiltshire Police.

0:23:210:23:23

And I have a German shepherd who's four,

0:23:250:23:28

his birthday's in June and he's called Tyke.

0:23:280:23:31

He's a really good police dog, but he also is really naughty.

0:23:310:23:35

But he does deliver the goods, so I can put up with his naughtiness.

0:23:350:23:39

And Tyke certainly delivered

0:23:390:23:41

when his tracking expertise was called on.

0:23:410:23:44

We'd been having a series of burglaries

0:23:440:23:48

at the early hours of the morning

0:23:480:23:50

on convenience stores where large amounts of cigarettes

0:23:500:23:52

were being stolen,

0:23:520:23:53

and this had been going on for several weeks.

0:23:530:23:56

When a call came in of a robbery in progress at a local Co-op store,

0:23:560:24:01

Tyke was on duty.

0:24:010:24:02

There was an immediate call on the radio.

0:24:030:24:06

I was thinking,

0:24:080:24:09

"Oh, this is another one of the series that's been happening."

0:24:090:24:11

So I thought there was a good chance we could get here and

0:24:110:24:14

they might still be here.

0:24:140:24:15

So in your head you're thinking,

0:24:150:24:16

"Am I going to be met by the people at the scene, will they be here,

0:24:160:24:19

"will they be gone?"

0:24:190:24:20

The damage was to the front of the building,

0:24:210:24:24

where something had been thrown through to gain access.

0:24:240:24:27

Inside, the shop had been ransacked,

0:24:290:24:32

and the kiosk area was totally trashed.

0:24:320:24:36

I heard on the radio that a response officer was already at the scene,

0:24:370:24:41

so I went into the property,

0:24:410:24:43

spoke with him and the owner of the property,

0:24:430:24:45

and they were viewing the CCTV.

0:24:450:24:48

I took a quick look at that so I could look at

0:24:480:24:50

what the offenders look like

0:24:500:24:52

and then came back out to my vehicle to get Tyke and start tracking.

0:24:520:24:55

Once at the scene, Tyke picked up the scent of one of the thieves.

0:24:590:25:03

Once I'd got Tyke out tracking,

0:25:060:25:08

his head's gone down to the ground and his nose is on the ground.

0:25:080:25:12

He's pulling me along at quite some pace on the track.

0:25:120:25:15

So I know he's tracking a scent.

0:25:160:25:19

I'm thinking, "This could be those persons,"

0:25:190:25:21

so I'm going to follow that track,

0:25:210:25:24

which we followed to the bottom of this road

0:25:240:25:26

and on into the estate at the end.

0:25:260:25:28

Halfway into the estate,

0:25:310:25:34

Tyke jumped up on top of the hedge with his front feet.

0:25:340:25:37

When Tyke finds property, he will hover over it

0:25:400:25:42

or he will freeze on it,

0:25:420:25:44

so he was basically saying to me, "There's something here, Mum,

0:25:440:25:47

"you need to look at it."

0:25:470:25:48

Tyke has then located property which was stolen from the Co-op,

0:25:510:25:56

which was a duvet cover which was full of cigarettes.

0:25:560:25:59

Tyke's taken me in through the estate and round through to a wooded

0:26:030:26:08

little copse area, where I can no longer detect that he's tracking.

0:26:080:26:12

So in my head I'm thinking, "They've only come up to this point.

0:26:140:26:18

"So I need to work back into the estate

0:26:180:26:20

"to try and pick up the track to

0:26:200:26:22

"find where they've gone to ground."

0:26:220:26:24

Tyke had picked up a further track and located in two different gardens

0:26:270:26:32

items of clothing believed to be belonging to the offenders.

0:26:320:26:35

From there, we've tracked on,

0:26:370:26:40

and at this point, his head's come up and

0:26:400:26:41

his tail's gone up and I can see that his demeanour is changing.

0:26:410:26:45

I look around a little bend and I can see a person.

0:26:480:26:52

He had no shoes on, there was nobody else out

0:26:540:26:56

at this time of the morning.

0:26:560:26:58

I shout over to this guy,

0:27:010:27:03

"Excuse me, mate, can I just have a quick word?",

0:27:030:27:06

at which point he turns and starts to walk away.

0:27:060:27:09

I'm thinking, "This is the man responsible for the burglary."

0:27:100:27:14

So I shout to him, "Please stop, police officer with a dog.

0:27:140:27:18

"Stand still or I'll release the dog."

0:27:180:27:20

Because at this point I'm thinking, "He's going to run off."

0:27:200:27:23

He's started to quicken his pace.

0:27:230:27:24

He then turns round and faces me and Tyke, and I get closer and apprehend

0:27:260:27:30

him for the offence of the burglary.

0:27:300:27:33

And the evidence found by Tyke during the track

0:27:330:27:36

was integral to linking the thief to the robbery.

0:27:360:27:38

Forensics linked him with the glass from the scene

0:27:400:27:44

to glass that was located on his person following his arrest.

0:27:440:27:48

The thief was sentenced to eight months in prison.

0:27:490:27:51

Tyke got a reward for finding a prisoner-offender.

0:27:530:27:56

He got a venison leg, which is his favourite.

0:27:560:27:59

He's on a raw-food diet, so venison leg is a big treat.

0:27:590:28:03

That's a just reward for this expert tracker.

0:28:030:28:06

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