Luke & Tina Break-in Britain - The Crackdown

In the UK, there's a burglary every 64 seconds.

But right across Britain, committed police forces are leading

the battle to stop the thieves in their tracks.

Police forcing entry!

Police!

For the victims of these crimes,

it can take months or even years to overcome the trauma.

You feel awkward when somebody has wandered through your house

and gone through your personal belongings, don't you?

Somebody must be desperate.

But in this series, we're fighting back against the burglars,

helping you to beef up your security.

We've got the floodlights, we've got the camera, we've got the locks.

Excellent stuff.

-We feel more secure now, which is good.

-Oh, aye, yes, smashing.

-Smashing, a really good job.

-I agree.

This is...

Who would stoop so low as to steal a child's bike?

Especially when it's locked up in a garden shed.

Well, trust me, it does happen.

On today's programme, I'll be looking at how we can keep our bikes

and sheds safe from thieves.

But, first, the story of Luke and Tina.

They didn't think they had much worth stealing.

Well, they were in for a nasty shock.

It's just gone eight o'clock in the morning

and an emergency call comes in to the police.

Is there anything more disturbing than waking up to find

someone's been poking around in your house while you've been asleep?

As I arrive at the scene of the crime,

the police are busy dusting for fingerprints.

Luke and Tina are trying to come to terms with what's been done to them.

We'd come down about 6:45 this morning and the dog...

I thought I'd let the dog out,

so I come down, let the dog out, and this door was wide open.

I was still half-asleep, so I didn't think much of it.

Shut the door and went back to bed.

That's the tiny window they must have got through.

Luke, a grandad and former army corporal who was forced

into early retirement through ill health, was gutted to discover

that a laptop, a tablet computer, and a mobile phone were all missing.

My son came in and said, "You moved the laptop?" I said, "No."

He says, "Well, it's not there, it's gone."

And he noticed the back gate was open, down there.

-One of his kids' bikes had gone.

-Quite a few electrical bits gone.

Laptop, my phone, iPad...

Thankfully, Tina's handbag was covered by a cushion

and Luke's wallet was also overlooked.

They tried to get the telly off the wall and failed.

-So they were clearly aiming for electricals.

-Looks that way, yeah.

But what's really hit Tina hard

is the theft of their grandson Jamie's push bike.

We know how to wait and save up, and get our stuff back,

but the kids, I mean, spring's not that far away.

Will we be able to afford another bike by then?

They've completely been through the shed.

That's the granddaughter's bike, they took the grandson's bike,

it's gone.

Because that one needs mending, so they probably left that one.

That's where the bikes were, right at the back.

It's something else.

Could have been worse, could have been a lot worse.

Luke and Tina clearly adore their grandchildren and to see these

two kind and generous people suffer like this is just heart-breaking.

-And you were in when this happened?

-We were in bed.

-Asleep up there.

-Didn't hear a thing?

-No.

More than one quarter of burglars get in through

an unlocked door or open window.

That seems likely here, too.

There was all this stuff on top of there, it was knocked down here.

Yeah.

He must have been a right tiddler, got through that window.

-It opens further than that.

-Oh, does it?

Yeah, the policeman's pushed it to, a bit.

It was wide open this morning.

Still, though, I think we can rule out any sumo wrestlers.

It looks like the thieves may have slipped up

when Tina discovers a clue.

There's a zipper, there, caught in the top.

-Oh, yes!

-Nothing to do with me or Luke.

So they've wriggled in on their belly, or something.

That may be an important bit of evidence, there.

The scene of crime officer soon has it collected.

It could supply valuable DNA evidence to help catch the criminal.

Out in the garden, I spot some CCTV cameras belonging to the

fast-food restaurant across the alley.

They're not pointing directly at Luke and Tina's,

but they might have recorded some vital evidence.

It's up there, but it doesn't shine onto here.

It might shine on the back.

Might show them going away with stuff, or...

I'm sure the police will be interested in their footage.

West Yorkshire has just seen close to a 20% fall in

reported burglaries, but that's no consolation to Luke and Tina.

-You're upset, aren't you?

-Yeah.

I'm angry about the bike.

I mean, I'm angry about these bits, I mean,

I got him the iPad thing for Christmas and that, but...

They're replaceable. I mean, I know the bike's replaceable, we're not...

We're not lottery winners, or millionaires...

-We're all just...

-Plodding on.

-..plodding on.

I hate to see Tina upset like this.

I really want to help this couple feel safe again in their own home.

We've got some resources

and some contacts that we can help you to improve your security.

-Yeah.

-So how does that sound?

-Yeah.

Good, I mean, there's not a lot left that they can take,

but it would help, I suppose, but I just thought...

For peace of mind, you don't like the idea of people walking

through your house when you're asleep, do you?

Hopefully, we'll try and make sure they can't get in again.

Luke and Tina have good neighbours,

but they are dangerously close to a high crime area.

Plus, I'm concerned about where their house is on the estate.

They're right on the end, here, so they are a bit more

vulnerable than the rest of the block for getting burgled again.

I want to make sure that their security is a lot better,

so I've asked Crime Reduction Officer Richard Thornton

what can be done to protect their home.

The initial concern probably would be you've no boundary,

the fence has sadly been damaged at some point and not replaced.

If you actually put a boundary fence on here,

that offender has got to consciously think

of crossing that boundary to go in and commit the offence.

Tucked away down an alley,

there's another security issue that Richard's honed in on.

The front door.

It's going to be very dark, I would suspect,

there's no lighting near the door.

We'd recommend just a door lighting at this particular point.

It illuminates the area, any pedestrians passing

are going to see anybody creeping around.

And here's another reason why Richard thinks their security

is a bit, well, rubbish.

You've got wheelie bins that are insecure.

Those wheelie bins can be brought up to the fence,

somebody can stand on them and climb straight over the fence.

It'd be an easy point of access.

So it, sort of, makes the fence kind of redundant

if you've got climbing aids like that.

Luke and Tina used to think their high fence would keep burglars out.

Sadly, it didn't.

-This is where the burglars got over, we think.

-Nice, high fence.

There are things you can actually install on top of the fence.

If it's well up out of the way, over two metres,

you can put what we call these hostile toppings.

You can buy strips, plastic strips that are spiky,

you can put anti-climb paint on there...

Should a determined burglar get into the garden,

Richard recommends better locks for the door.

But a much softer target, of course, is Luke and Tina's ropey old shed.

So, Rich, here's the shed. What do you reckon?

Nightmare, basically.

Erm... There's no locks on, clearly.

It's insecure, so anybody can literally just pull that open.

There's clearly no bolts that have gone straight through into the frame.

We'd be looking at suggesting putting in a couple of coach bolt type things

that can't be unscrewed from external.

We're seeing offenders literally come with a screwdriver,

unscrew all the hinges and leave the locks intact

and just peel the door back.

-They do it in minutes.

-Is there anything else that can be done?

Yeah, they can get shed alarms, they can be fitted.

They either can be working independently, battery-powered,

or you can have them fastened up to the mains.

I would never have thought of having an alarm for a shed.

Good idea, although a recent poll revealed that 34% of us

rarely turn our house alarm on.

Luke and Tina do have one, but it doesn't work,

and there's a dead giveaway.

If you live locally, looking at that alarm box,

I can tell you now, it's a very old phone number on the front of there,

-not the current prefix for Leeds.

-Right.

That hasn't been the phone number since ye olde Leeds.

An offender's going to know that,

so they're going to look at that and say,

"It's an old box, is the alarm current? Probably not."

Clearly Richard thinks there's a lot to be done here.

What would be your overall security assessment

for this house out of ten?

-I'd be looking at, probably, three.

-Three? As low as that?

-As low as that.

-Looks like we've got a lot to do.

Time to make a call to a man who can help.

-Hello, Neil, it's Dan.

-'Hiya, Dan, how are you doing?'

All right, yeah, listen, I think I've got a job for you,

are you available?

'Oh, yes, if you let me have details, let me know what it is,

-'I'll get it sorted out for you as soon as possible.'

-Fantastic.

Those cameras belonging to the takeaway are probably watching me,

but let's hope they also got some pictures of whoever burgled

Luke and Tina's home.

As night falls, the police are on the case.

The attacked premises is actually just here.

Having first established that the cameras may have seen something,

PC Nathan Goodwin now needs to find out if the footage exists.

Hiya, sir, you all right? It's been identified you've got CCTV cameras.

At the back? Yeah, we have.

Right, I just need to see

-if they do cover a possible route to the suspects.

-OK.

If I can view them, just have a look to see

-if there is any suspects caught on it.

-No problem.

-So that's looking down the alleyway that way.

-Right.

-And then...

That one looks...that way, where we've just walked.

It appears to be a little bit of a long shot,

as in, the house is over here.

It won't catch the actual offence occurring,

but if I capture two people on CCTV mooching around

at four o'clock in the morning,

it's a good enough reason for me to go and speak to them.

Who says being a cop's glamorous?

The break-in could have occurred at any time during the night,

so there's a lot of footage to study.

But, incredibly, there's a breakthrough

within a very short time.

-That's the same lad going back, isn't it?

-Yeah.

23:41, he goes back.

And this has never happened.

I've never sat looking at CCTV and within ten minutes seen possible offenders.

Not out of seven hours' worth of CCTV.

Result!

But the pictures alone aren't good enough

for a positive identification.

They do have their hoods pulled up. They are quite masked over.

But bearing in mind that we found in the house

items which could give back DNA,

as in the zip, we can then go arrest that person

if we can recover what appears to be reasonably identifiable clothing,

and it's missing what it's missing,

then it gives some interesting questions that they need to answer.

Come on, let's see some property.

That's a bike. Someone has just come out of that back bit, there,

on a pedal bike.

Bingo! That's Jamie's bike, I think. Unbelievable!

Let's see that again.

Time to take one more look at the crime scene

and put all the pieces together.

The way they've got into this offence is by an insecure window,

which it's possible that they've seen from that side and then

come round here and when we've been watching them walking up and down,

they've been trying to get in through the gate.

They haven't had a bike and they've come up this way,

gone into there, and they've now got a bike with them.

It's not definitely them, but from what I've seen on the cameras

and what I know of the offence, everything ties in.

Hopefully Luke and Tina will see justice,

but, now, let's crack on with stopping any more break-ins.

Neil and the boys are here to help them fight back.

-Neil.

-Dan.

-You all right?

-Yeah, not bad, how are you?

-How's it going?

-Oh, it's good.

Plenty to do, but we can tick one thing off our list straightaway.

-Council have been and they've sorted out the fence, so...

-Excellent.

That's loads neater.

The alarm, we've been after...

I think the last time that was working, those two needed barbers.

Top of their to-do list is Luke and Tina's old garden shed,

a soft target if ever there was one.

But is it a bit like yours?

Jacqui's been looking into what all of us can do

to keep our gardens secure.

Almost a fifth of household burglaries involve property

taken from outside the home, from our sheds and garages.

Not only that, but our gardens form the first line of defence

to stop burglars actually getting inside our homes.

So I've come to a show garden

designed especially to prevent theft.

Metropolitan Police Crime Officer Paul Barden is going to talk me

through it.

Well, this is the front garden,

approaching it as any member of the public would

and also a burglar, what's the first thing that you would say about it?

You can see clearly through to the front door and the clear aspect

of the window and it's made, basically, to keep the planting low

so you can see out and from the street, you can see clearly towards

the property, so there's nowhere, really, that anybody could hide.

Well, let's go in and have a look.

Is there anything important about what we're standing on?

Gravel is designed to make noise

and alert the occupants that potentially somebody could be near.

It doesn't have to be particularly thick,

but it does part of the security aspect for the front of the property.

But clearly this front window and door could be vulnerable.

What have you done here?

Very simply, we have some prickly planting to protect the window

and it's not the sort of planting that people can hide behind, either,

so it gives a bit of defence, as well.

But burglars don't always take the conventional front door route.

So what about the back garden?

I've never seen, sort of, that horizontal...

Latchlarp fencing, before.

There are no finger holds,

there are no foot holds that you can use to either climb in or climb out.

It's a different design and it is both safe for children

but it is also good security, as well.

But the trellis on the top, wouldn't that give a burglar something

to put their hands and feet in?

It could do, if you use the sort of heavyweight trellis.

This is very light and very flexible

and again it's designed to support plants and not body weight.

So they can't get a grip hold of that and get over it,

-it's going to fall to bits?

-Absolutely.

Making sure your garden is well lit is also really important.

Lighting which is directional, that can actually look down the garden

rather than back towards the house.

But a lot of people have lighting at the back of their garden

coming towards the back of the house.

There is a problem with that.

If you're inside the house and you want to be able to see outside,

if you've got light coming in, it could glare you,

you're not going to be able to see anybody.

You want to be able to see the things in your garden.

That's one hell of a lock you've got on that shed, isn't it?

This is a pad bolt system. We'd advocate having two...

..and then that just slides down...

..so it's a visual deterrent and also a time deterrent, as well.

Paul, I can immediately see that the tools have been

padlocked to the wall.

Tools are not cheap these days, but they can be used to, perhaps,

attack your own property.

Sited near the windows

so that the burglar can see without having to come in, even,

-that this is really secure.

-Absolutely, a visual deterrent

sometimes works. It means also that perhaps the opportunist has

got to go a little bit further and bring something with them

rather than having ready-made tools that are available in the garden.

Well, I've learnt some really interesting tips

and ideas about how to plan a garden - keeping it wide open,

the planting, and just a few interesting thoughts

about the design of it - to create that first light line of defence

between the burglar and your house.

Back in Leeds, I'm taking it personally,

helping Luke and Tina,

who had their grandson's bike stolen from their garden shed.

Valuable electrical items were taken from their home, too.

But, as I discover,

they have another reason to regret the loss of Jamie's bike.

The child's mum, she took out a loan, you know,

from one of them doorstep loan sharks to buy these bikes.

It's not just £150 bike,

she's probably paid £500 apiece for these bikes.

-She bought the bikes with very tough credit...

-Yeah...

Doorstep lending.

Yeah, which makes it...

it worse, because the kids have had to go without

while she was paying the money back.

But I won't get on that again.

The police do have some leads, though.

For a start, Tina discovered a zip left behind

as the burglar wriggled through the utility room window.

I know, it's not very deep, is it?

It's not a big fellow that's got in there, is it?

No, some little toerag.

Plus, the police now have CCTV pictures of what

looks like two burglars loitering outside their home.

That's a bike. Someone's just come out of that back bit, there,

on a peddle bike.

That's encouraging news for Luke and Tina and they could do with it, too,

because they're still in a bad way.

It didn't really hit me straightaway.

It got me, sort of, a bit down and...

the day after.

-Being intruded upon, and...

-It got me straightaway.

The next morning when I woke up, I wouldn't come downstairs.

You were scared to come downstairs.

I made him come down first.

I wouldn't come downstairs until he told me that

there had been nobody in.

The Crime Reduction Officer, Richard, he's had a look

around and he actually gave it just a three out of ten

for your security, here.

-Is that a surprise?

-Yeah, very surprised.

-Yeah,

because we thought that big fence would do it.

Putting the fence up, we assumed that that's enough to say,

-"Keep out."

-Obviously not.

-So, there's a fair bit to do,

-we'll get this place firmed up, and nice and secure.

-Yeah.

That would be brilliant. We wouldn't feel safe until it is secure, now,

that's what we want, so that would be brilliant.

The boys are already getting stuck in,

one mighty task being a complete revamp of the garden shed,

courtesy of Neil, Jason, and their willing apprentice.

Are you filming this? Donnelly's doing a bit of graft, for once.

Remember the old screws? They were hopeless against the burglars.

Bring out the clutch screws!

They go in but they don't come out.

Get in.

I never thought I'd say it, but that's looking solid.

Time for further reinforcements.

-At last!

-Believe it or not, it's my son.

-Is it?

I'm so pleased someone with hair's turned up.

While Liam applies the hostile toppings

and the anti-climb paint...

So is this the old-fashioned burglar grease?

That's right, it's horrible to put on.

It's really effective when you get it on there.

..Jason's fitting an alarm that actually works,

including a wireless connection to the shed.

So basically this talks to the alarm and that's it?

-That's it, yeah.

-Fantastic.

Plus there's a new British Standard lock, a proper dusk to dawn

light by the front door,

and, last but not least, secure wheelie bins.

We've put a bracket on already, so let's just wrap this chain around.

There we are, that's the bins secure.

Luke and Tina's home is now a lot safer,

so hopefully no more lost bikes for them.

But, as Jacqui's discovered, here in Leeds,

they're fighting back against bike theft.

Unbelievably, 95,000 bikes were stolen in 2013

and many more went unreported.

I'm meeting up with PC Matt Guy, who's an expert

when it comes to keeping bikes safe.

So tell us about this place, what's so secure about it?

The first thing is location. Where are you going to park your bike?

Here's a really, really good location.

It's a nice open space, there's a CCTV camera up there, it's well lit,

and you've got these bike racks.

-Presumably, the lock is also pretty key?

-The lock's key.

This one here is a secure D-lock, which is

locked through the bike frame. If you've got detachable front wheels,

you want to be locking them up, because we are finding that

people are just stealing the wheels now they can't get the whole bike.

You then move on to this next bike here and another

good way of making sure your bike's not stolen is by buying a cheap bike.

It is a good example. What I wouldn't do, though,

is I wouldn't use one of these locks.

That can be cut through literally with a pair of scissors.

That's a big no-no.

Now, this bike here has got one of the most useless locks in the world, ever.

That really would go through with a pair of nail clippers.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone, we just see so many of these bikes go and it takes seconds.

They walk up, they snip it, generally they work in teams of two,

one person snips through, the other person rides off and they're gone.

The chances of catching them are tiny and then

it's hard to get the bikes back as well,

because often they are not marked.

But if you're parking your bike up and your bike looks more secure than your neighbour's

and they're about the same price,

chances are you're not going to have it stolen.

And how much should you spend, then, to get a really good one?

Rule of thumb, 10% of the cost of your bike.

So £300 bike, £30 lock.

Even better than locking your bike outside in the street...

if you can, park it in a secure bike park, like one of these.

Designed like a multistorey car park,

it's full of bikes instead of cars.

Very simple to do,

slot your bike into this lovely metal tray.

For £1 a day,

you can be sure that your bike is safe...

secure...

and is covered by CCTV cameras 24 hours a day.

Andy Sandiford is the manager and he tells me how the

park is going down amongst the cyclists of Leeds.

It's very popular, we've been open since August 2010,

so just over three years, now.

We've over 100 customers with monthly and annual passes

and a lot of people using one-off day tickets

where they might just want to pop into town,

lock up their bike and do a bit of shopping.

Leeds was the front runner, but other cities soon followed

and the aim is to have more than 30 across the UK within a few years.

So, you've chosen your secure place to leave your bike

and you've got a really good lock.

The next thing you can do to secure your bike is to mark it.

What we recommend in this area is the ImmobiTag.

OK, Matt, well, show me how it works.

Right, so you remove your saddle seat

and then you just pop this down the saddle post, here.

So what happens when your bike gets stolen, then?

I put my dipper down there and I press my button.

This picks up the code that's in the microchip.

I can then run that through my police radio,

and I can find out whose property it belongs to.

If you've reported this bike stolen,

Mr Billy Burglar's going to get locked up.

Excellent, and I get my bike back.

Only 9% of our stolen goods are ever recovered,

so Luke and Tina aren't getting their hopes up over their lost

bike and electrical goods.

The sighting of two possible break-in suspects on CCTV

was a bit of a breakthrough, though.

That's the same lad going back, isn't it?

So how is the investigation progressing?

It did show some promising footage to begin with, however, since

I've downloaded it, it's not produced as much of an image as we want it to.

It's not suitable, unfortunately, for identifying anyone out of that.

Have you got anything else to go on?

On that job there were also some forensics which were sent off,

I've just had the results back of that, today, as well.

Unfortunately, the item that we'd sent off, which was a small portion

of a zip, that hasn't brought any DNA material back, either.

Not looking good, then.

On that offence, unfortunately there's not

a lot of enquiries left that we can do.

But when you lose your key evidence, it's frustrating.

That's a blow,

I was really hoping they could make an arrest soon.

Still, at least Luke and Tina's house is now a lot more secure.

Time to see if crime reduction officer Richard Thornton

would like to rethink his rating.

-What do you think of it so far?

-Looks ten times better, doesn't it?

Absolutely brilliant.

Luke and Tina used to think their high garden fence protected them.

But now, thanks to a few key additions, it really will.

We've got our defensive spikes.

Out of the way, nobody's going to get injured

unless they're going to want to climb over that.

But what about the shed Richard described as a nightmare?

Have a look at this!

Hope he likes my screws.

Absolutely amazing. No, great job on the front, that's super.

Sounds good. But what's his verdict?

Last time, you gave us

a three out of ten for the security on this house.

Now that we've made the improvements, what do you think?

Made a massive difference, it really has made a big difference.

It's got to be now, pretty much, I'd say a nine out of ten.

Nine out of ten? Ho-ho!

Yeah, there's not much else you could really do, now, at this point.

-Yeah.

-So it's a really good job.

-I'm chuffed with that. Brilliant.

-Nice one, Rich.

-Nice one.

-I'm going to go and tell them the good news.

-See you later.

-See you!

All done, come and have a look.

New lighting,

only comes on when it goes dark.

New locks and secure wheelie bins.

Never even thought of that.

And, to cap it all, the wireless alarm.

-Just like a car.

-That's it?

-That's it.

-So if someone opened the door now...

-Yeah.

-Shall I try?

-Yeah, give it a go.

ALARM SCREECHES

That's really clever, isn't it?

So, what do Luke and Tina make of the improvements?

So, we're all done. What do you think?

Yeah, great, appreciate it, thank you very much.

We can't thank you enough for what you've done, thank you.

-It's brilliant, a lot more secure.

-Yeah, much, much, better.

-Well, we haven't slept properly since it happened, have we?

-Not really.

-We'll sleep better tonight!

-Ah, yes.

-So that's all your security sorted.

How are you getting on with your insurance?

Oh, yeah, they've been very good, very helpful.

Quite efficient and quick, we've got

-the vouchers through to replace everything already.

-Oh, brilliant.

How about the bike?

Oh, we got the vouchers for Jamie, my grandson's bike,

so we're hoping to go and fetch that as soon as possible.

-And it'll be as safe as houses, now, in the shed, so...

-Brilliant.

-First use for the shed.

-Oh, definitely.

-Thanks again, Dan, appreciate it.

-No worries.

-All the best.

-Cheers.

-Cheers.

-All the best. Cold hands!

I'm so chuffed, you know. At the start,

we were given three out of ten for the security on this place.

To get it up to nine out of ten, that's an incredible result.

I'm so happy for Tina and Luke, this place is rock solid.

They ain't getting burgled again.