Golden Wedding Distress Break-in Britain - The Crackdown

Every minute of every day, someone, somewhere, is getting burgled.

Doesn't sound good.

With an average of 92 break-ins an hour, it's a huge problem.

It never ceases to amaze me how much mess those burglars cause for people.

For the victims of these crimes,

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

How dare they?

Out of order, out of order!

I felt sick.

Somebody's been in my house.

I don't want to drive up to a building and see it trashed again.

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

Police, forcing entry! Police!

..helping you to beef up your security...

Here we go.

..while the police catch the criminals.

How are you feeling about things now?

Oh, I feel loads better. Loads better.

This is Break-In Britain...

Hello there. Now, being burgled is never fun

but if you are elderly and come home to find that your house

has been ransacked, it can be terrifying.

Today we are helping Granville and May, who were left shaken

to the core when thieves broke into their home and stole precious items.

It's terrible.

She is upset.

Somebody has been in your house.

And I'm in South Wales where efforts to open a much-needed nursery school

for the local community have been jeopardised by thieves.

Our job is to look after these kids and we can't.

I can't do that because I can't keep myself and that building safe.

In 9% of burglaries, the thieves get in by smashing a door panel.

At West Yorkshire Police control, a 999 call is coming in.

It sounds like there has been a burglary in broad daylight.

Police are already here.

I'm going to go and find out what has happened.

The victims of this burglary are pensioners Granville and May.

Along with one of their daughters, Claire,

they are trying to piece together what has been stolen

so they can complete a statement for the police.

The main thing that is missing is a safe full of jewellery.

Whereabouts is the safe, please?

Front bedroom, inside wardrobe.

3-D DVD player.

-What colour?

-Black.

Golden wedding anniversary stuff.

You know, like picture frames and cups.

The hours following a break-in and can be traumatic and chaotic

and, in this case, May is really shaken up.

Daughter Hayley thinks her mum may well be in shock at the moment.

Is she going to be all right, do you think?

Probably not, no.

I think this will take... This will knock her for six.

It's being in the house, you know,

only finding out weeks prior a friend of ours

has been burgled and died.

You know, she is frightened. It is frightening.

The family are really pulling together during this

difficult time and there is still a lot of clearing up to be done.

So, this is the sight they came home to and I know from in that

wardrobe is where the safe was with all the jewellery in.

And, also, a big bag of presents from their 50th wedding anniversary.

Gone. Sickening, isn't it?

The thieves got in at the back of the property and it seems they

used a garden tool to prise open the door panel before booting it in.

It must have been a noisy burglary,

so did the neighbours hear anything?

The police are carrying out house-to-house enquiries.

-Just a quick one. Did you see or hear anything...

-No.

-..next door?

I heard some banging but I just thought it was them next door.

So a neighbour did hear some banging.

May is still too distressed to talk to us so, after Granville has

finished his statement to the police, I catch up with him.

-So, how are you feeling at the moment?

-Erm...

Not very good, like. Do you know that I mean?

It happened, didn't it? It's terrible.

Erm... She's... She's upset.

Somebody has been in your house and that is really...

Things what's gone can be replaced but...

It could have been worse.

Because your wife has gone cold with the shock.

This has just shook her up a lot.

Well, if it helps you out, we have got our security experts,

-people who know how to keep burglars out.

-Yeah.

They can pop round, have a look where your weak points are,

-fix things up so that hopefully burglars can't get back in.

-Yeah.

-Thank you very much.

-No problem.

I'll get on the blower to the boys.

So, Granville seems to be made of fairly tough stuff

but May, I think she is going to struggle to get over this.

But at least if we can get their security sorted out,

we can make a start.

It is the next day

and time to get crime reduction officer Nick on the case.

But before he even started security assessment, he spotted footprints.

They have left footprints on the other side.

If you have a look, you can see some little indentations -

some marks, some circles of the footprint pattern.

-It's like hexagons, isn't it?

-Yeah.

The footprint pattern on the right-hand side,

there is a small shape which I would expect to have

the name of the manufacturer of the shoe in it.

-But we need to cover them up.

-Right.

-Let's just preserve the evidence.

'The rain is absolutely lashing it down,

'so let's get inside and have a look where the safe used to be.'

So, Nick, this is where the safe was taken from.

Is that a classic place to leave it?

Just because you have got your little safe,

your little hard tin box, if you shove everything in it,

all that is is a metal handbag to be picked up and run off with

and you lose everything at once, including your safe.

They have got to be screwed down,

they have got to have Rawlbolts into concrete, you've got to make

sure that it is hidden away somewhere better than the back of a wardrobe.

'So if you are going to get a safe, get a decent one

'and make sure it is securely fixed.'

So, Nick, you've had a good look around. What do you make of it?

It is pretty standard.

There are glaring mistakes - the fact that there is no alarm,

front door lock needs changing.

In reality, I would suggest that that door needs upgraded.

Overall, what would be your security assessment

for this place out of ten?

Security assessment out of ten...

Four.

'Blimey, only four out of ten?!

'Our security contractor, Neil Goldup,

'has his work cut out sorting out the problems here.'

This is the one.

'So I had better give him a hand.

'And, while I do, it is over to Keeley in South Wales.'

The average cost of damage to a property

after a burglary is £358.

But the 999 call coming into Bridgend Police control sounds like it

will cost a lot more than that.

This building was being refurbished to turn it into a nursery

to serve the local community.

But thieves have smashed a second-floor window and it seems

spent an entire weekend ripping out copper pipes,

which has left the ground floor flooded.

Point of entry is in that room just there.

The room they've come in through has actually got an alarm system

fitted in that room and the first thing

they have done, it would appear, is smash the alarm system.

The fact, obviously, that that alarm hasn't been activated

suggests that it hasn't actually been

connected up to an alarm company as yet. It is a newly-fitted alarm.

The owner at the moment is concerned that it is going to put her

out of business because this is the second time and it is a few

thousand pounds' worth of damage again, on top of the original.

The victims of this burglary are owner Sara,

who runs this other nursery nearby,

her son Zac and his friend Rhys, who both work for her.

They have been helping to refurbish the new nursery premises

but this break-in has set their plans back big-time

and has left them dumbfounded.

We have worked quite hard over the last month or so.

Particularly with the last break-in, where everything that we had stored

was damaged, and we tried to pick ourselves back up

and carry on again.

-Then this happens.

-Now someone has done it again.

Shall we have a look upstairs?

And if the damage downstairs seems bad,

what greets them upstairs is even worse.

The floors have been ripped out.

Any piping that's underneath has been taken.

The damage again here...

Not only is it visually quite bad but, once you start looking

at the pipes that have been removed,

it is quite a substantial amount.

It is really devastating.

The break-in and the huge amount of damage has stunned Zac and Rhys.

They are going to have to dig deep to find the energy

to start the renovation all over again.

This particular burglary has really hacked me off.

The lads have put in endless hours of work here

and the burglars have just come along and trashed the place.

And what for?

A bit of piping.

But there is one good bit of news - despite the massive flooding,

the CSI team have found a clear footprint on a piece of plasterboard.

These are going to be the offender's footprints.

What we'll do with these is get these looked at

by our footwear team.

They will identify the trainer and then we can look at who has been

arrested in the last six months wearing that particular trainer.

So it gives us a list of names. Works as intelligence, really.

While both Zac and Rhys are trying to see a way forward

for the new nursery, owner Sara is not so sure.

The boys haven't let her see the latest damage

as they think it would be too much for her to bear.

-Do you think it will open?

-It has got to go open.

It has got to open, otherwise this place will have to shut.

It is as simple as that because this place is funding it.

So you, at the moment, are paying out for something

that you aren't seeing any...?

Yeah, I have been paying out for the last eight months.

That's eight months' worth of staff wages,

eight months' worth of rent on top of a building that is sitting there

doing nothing that is costing me thousands of pounds a month

that I've got to fund.

-Are you scared?

-Yeah.

Every time you try and do something and then...

I mean, how scared you get when you drive up to a building every day

and you don't even know what's going to be there.

They won't let me go and see it.

It's that damaged, they won't let me go and see it.

Our job is to look after these kids and we can't.

I can't do that because I can't keep myself and that building safe.

How do I expect you to bring your child to a building

I can't keep safe?

We have got a security expert which we would like

to take round to the premises

because there's obviously something wrong with the security there.

If you will let us get our security guys round to at least try

-and help...

-Yeah.

-How does that sound, then...?

It would make me very grateful.

Everybody here would be very grateful.

For Zac and Rhys, the new venture is their future.

I think it is fair to say that these two lads don't look like your

typical nursery nurses but it means the world to them and Sara and

it is crucial we do something to help to get this project back on track.

There is clearly a lot to do here

so, while I get security expert Tony on the case,

it is back to Dan in Yorkshire.

Back in Leeds, Granville and May's backdoor was kicked in

and their house ransacked.

Thieves have caused chaos and amongst other things,

they have made off with a safe full of their valuables,

including their golden wedding anniversary presents.

May is very shaken up.

Granville is just about coping and their daughter Haley is furious.

Angry.

More angry because it is my mum and dad, you know,

and it's like, you don't do that to my mum and dad.

They're old, you know, and it's...

I have got no respect for people like that.

Respect is the wrong word, though. I'm angry.

So, it is time to beef up their security

and despite the fact that the break-in

happened around the back, the first thing Neil does is to change

the front door lock and put a better one in.

May is really worried about the broken back door

and wants a sturdy security grille installed,

so Neil immediately gets on the case and calls for extra help.

I don't suppose you have got a spare hour today, have you,

to get round to a job?

They got burgled last night and they are petrified.

They need a door grille putting on.

You'll get round today to have a look?

If you can get over... That's great. Cheers, Rick. All right, Cheers.

Bye.

It is about time I got involved with the security upgrade.

First up, it's the fence, which the thieves found too easy to scale.

Right, this stuff...

It won't slice you up like carpet gripper or barbed wire or glass

or anything horrible like that, it is just really unpleasant to touch.

I mean, that hurts. It keeps the burglars away.

Meanwhile, Neil's mates are measuring up for the security grille

to protect the back door

while Neil's round the front installing the alarm box.

To be a proper deterrent, it needs to be in a prominent position.

This is your alarm system.

That is a key fob - that is much easier to use than the keypad.

So the key fob, all it is...

Basically, press the top button

and you'll hear the alarm beep outside once.

That's actually live now, that's active,

-so once I open this door...

-ALARM RINGS

-It sets your alarm off.

-Right.

-To turn it off, it's just the bottom button...

-ALARM STOPS

-And you will hear it beep twice outside.

-Yeah, fantastic.

So, I feel like we have made some headway.

We have secured the fences,

put an alarm on and there's more to come.

Hopefully Nick is going to be impressed.

More importantly, Granville and May

have got a chance of having a better night's sleep.

It is three days after the break-in

and I am back with Granville and May.

They are proud grandparents who got married as teenagers

when he was 19 and she was just 16.

Their joint passion was motorbikes.

So, that's May there?

That's May there.

She'll have been 17.

-So you were rockers?

-Yeah.

-That's a friend.

-Yeah.

-So you were proper bikers and rockers?

-Oh, yeah.

Yeah, yeah.

-Is that your bikes?

-That's mine, that were mine.

I got rid of that two years ago.

I was 70 when I got rid of it.

You know the stuff that was taken, it was from your 50th anniversary.

50th... That's 50th wedding anniversary.

-Stuff that the family has bought for her?

-This is it.

Well, you can't replace...

Well, you can replace it, but it's not the same, is it? It's...

I don't know, it's...

You know there's somebody out there that's got your gear

and that's what is upsetting.

Despite their losses,

things are starting to get back to normal for May and Granville.

May is feeling more secure now that the grille has been installed

over the back door.

So with things looking up here in Leeds,

it is back to Keeley in South Wales.

I have asked crime reduction adviser Tony to suggest

ways of improving security at the new nursery building.

Remember, twice in one year thieves have smashed their way in

and stolen copper piping.

The resulting water damage will cost many thousands of pounds to

put right, so we need to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Now, Tony, to the untrained eye,

I think the ground floor looks pretty secure.

The ground floor is pretty secure

and here you can see they have put grilles on the front, we've got

good roller shutter doors that are protecting solid doors behind.

So, yeah, the ground floor is not looking too bad.

And, as I'm looking round, the other thing I can see is an alarm box

on the top, so we know there's an alarm on the premises as well.

But what we are concerned about here is that even though

the ground floor is protected,

just a little journey up these steps here is how the burglars got in.

They have walked up the side of the wall.

-And that is not particularly difficult, is it?

-No, it's not.

It's pretty good steps there.

So that window needed to really be protected just like these ones.

Yes, it is the only one that is close to the edge of the wall.

Let's go in and look at that window, then, from the inside.

Right, let's go.

You can see here where they have ripped the floorboards up

and they have snapped the copper piping off.

The people that steal copper pipes don't take any care

in what they are doing.

They have snapped the pipes, they don't turn the water off,

they cause a huge amount of damage and, looking at this here,

this is fairly recent copper piping.

You can see where they have snapped it off but they don't need to

because these are push-fit connectors and they just come off.

-You don't need to snap the pipes.

-Fools.

-They really are.

Copper pipes are used for water and gas

and they don't care which ones they break.

The risk is terrible. The damage they cause is enormous.

Even though it is several days since the break-in,

the building is still in chaos and, until we have made it more secure,

there's not much point in starting on repairs.

So, this is the window.

Oh, the glass. What a mess!

What can we do to make this safer in future?

This was a double-glazed window with toughened glass.

Obviously not up to the job.

A couple of things you can do that are really simple -

you can put a grille on the outside

just as we've got on the ground floor

-or you could replace the glass with laminated glass.

-OK.

A double-glazed unit with laminated glass - if they break it,

the glass will crack but the plastic laminate

in the glass will hold it together,

so it's much more difficult for a criminal to get through.

Excellent. So either a grille or some laminate on the window.

The boiler. I just not cannot believe

that somebody would cut off pipes to a boiler.

Copper has a resale value.

It is recyclable and the value of copper is quite high

at the moment, so a small piece of copper...

Every bit counts and it goes towards the overall money for the thief.

'It seems the thieves spent a long time wreaking havoc inside

'the building and what allowed them to do that

'was the quality of the alarm.'

So it looks like this was the original alarm.

-Not much use on the floor.

-No.

This is the replacement that they have had to

put in for insurance purposes.

But even the replacement isn't really what we're after, is it?

This is obviously a stopgap.

The building is secluded

and the alarm that was fitted was an audible-only alarm.

Meaning that it just lets off a sound.

That's right, and because we haven't got people living in the area

and good neighbours, there was nobody to raise the alarm

when the criminals broke in, smashed it off the wall.

What we need is an alarm that does a little bit more than that.

The next type of alarm will actually phone up

the owner of the premises and tell them that

the alarm has been activated so that they can respond to it.

I really think this is where we can help them.

-We can get a better alarm system put in for them.

-That will be brilliant.

So, while the damage to the property seems rather overwhelming,

the security fixes are fairly simple.

I really want to help Zac and Rhys

because they clearly adore what they do as nursery nurses

and they are determined to get the new venture started.

You have got a fun job, haven't you?

I mean, we are all absolutely filthy and we have had

a bit of a workout, trying to get out of these little chairs.

-It is good, you have a good time.

-Absolutely.

-It is a bit of a lifestyle, really, isn't it?

-Yeah.

You've got to be willing to get messy everyday, to get stuck in.

-Can't really not take it all home, really.

-No.

One day you are playing with gloop, another day

you are building forts, you're outside playing football.

It is always different.

So it must be hard, knowing that you have been stopped

in your tracks opening another nursery.

-It's very discouraging.

-Yeah.

You are trying to set this up and not only so we can expand

the business for the children, for the community round there.

Every time we start getting closer,

we get knocked straight back to square one.

And I also want to help owner Sara

because she is worried sick about the amount of money

she is having to pay out to fund the new business

and about potential job losses if it becomes unaffordable for her.

I am their boss, I am responsible for them.

I am responsible for their mortgages and their family and their bills.

That is my responsibility because I took them on.

I told them there were jobs.

It is impossible not to feel sorry for Sara, and what might

give her some confidence is if we can beef up the security at the new site.

The problem with their previous alarm was that it didn't ring out

and link to a telephone. It was about as much use as this.

-Mummy.

-Mummy?

That's not Mummy, that's a dinosaur!

-Rrargh!

-Rrargh!

Thankfully, the alarm system we are installing at the new nursery site

is much more advanced.

Unlike the old one, that just made a loud noise in what is a rather

isolated location, the new one is connected to a phone line.

If the alarm is triggered,

it will automatically call or text Zac or Rhys.

Much better.

So, with the work done, it is time

to get crime reduction adviser Tony back to the site.

You have done a lot of work since I was here. How are things coming on?

Things are coming along quite nicely.

As you said, we have managed to get quite a lot done.

We have had the alarm fitted, which is great.

It has given us a great sense of peace of mind.

We feel a lot safer in the building

and we feel a lot safer leaving the building now.

That is really good.

There were a couple of other things I mentioned when I was here.

What about the window?

Because I recommended you put some laminated glass on there.

Yeah, the window is getting fitted shortly and outside,

we are going to slant... to prevent people walking on it.

Despite the amount of work still to be done redeveloping the site,

Zac is feeling much more positive now, and much safer.

The alarm is brilliant.

The fact that it can phone out is really, really helpful for us.

It gives us a great peace of mind, especially because it can

contact multiple people, so we can guarantee somebody will be coming.

HORN BLAST

We are looking forward to all the building work being finished

because then we can start moving in, we can start setting up

our expansion and that will be fantastic.

I am very thankful for the help of Keeley and the team,

the alarm guys... Everybody has been absolutely fantastic

and I honestly think that, without them, we wouldn't have gone

ahead with this, so I can't say thank you enough.

So, a good result in Swansea. Now back to Dan in Leeds.

How is he getting on?

The security upgrade's now complete

and the iron grille at the back is in.

So what does crime reduction officer Nick think?

Last time, he only gave it a four out of ten.

I have looked at it from the front.

You have a nice, bright, shiny alarm box.

That is what a burglar doesn't want to see.

The lock on the front door has been changed - good quality lock now.

You come round here and instantly you see an iron gate, security gate.

We don't usually recommend this

but it is a last-ditch measure to make things extra secure

because, at the moment, we don't know what type of door

the family are going to be going for.

If at all possible, as we know,

burglars would prefer the back of the house, the side of the house

rather than the front, because of the surveillance opportunities.

Change your habits -

put the vast majority of your security at the back of the house.

So secure at the back, secure at the side,

go out the front.

So, last time you were here you gave the place

a four out of ten for security.

How about now?

Now, with everything that you've done, I will give it an eight,

-if you are happy with that.

-Great, eight out of ten.

That is really going to put their mind at rest.

'Time to break the good news to the old rocker himself.'

Now that he has come round and reassessed the place,

he's given it an eight out of ten for security.

-That's really good.

-Yeah.

In two days it went from a four to an eight. It's good.

Do you think that will help May out?

I think it will.

It is calming her down, like.

I am quite confident now leaving my house.

It is pretty safe, do you know what I mean? It is safe.

-So, what can we do to get it to a ten?

-No-one gets a ten.

Oh, right!

Buckingham Palace don't get a ten,

Fort Knox don't get a ten.

Not from Nick, no chance.

'So, May is on the mend

'and it is great to see Granville smiling again. Job done.'

Granville and May are such a lovely couple.

It is really great that we were able to help them

feel more secure in their own home again.

Absolutely, and I really hope that the nursery

in South Wales does go ahead,

not just for Sara, Rhys and Zac's sake, but for the whole community.

That is it for now. Remember to keep them doors locked.

-Ta-ra.

-Bye-bye.