0:00:03 > 0:00:05According to police figures,
0:00:05 > 0:00:07more than 3,500 theft incidents
0:00:07 > 0:00:10are reported every day in the UK.
0:00:10 > 0:00:13I knew it was bad, but I didn't think it's that bad.
0:00:13 > 0:00:15But have you ever wondered what happens to our belongings
0:00:15 > 0:00:17when they're stolen?
0:00:17 > 0:00:20Thief Trackers tells the story of where they go.
0:00:21 > 0:00:25We're hiding satellite tracking devices inside a range of desirable
0:00:25 > 0:00:27every day items like cameras,
0:00:27 > 0:00:30smartphones and bicycles
0:00:30 > 0:00:32to trace the looters' footsteps.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34The thieves think they've got away with it,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37but we're tracking their every move.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40With secret filming, CCTV and police raid footage,
0:00:40 > 0:00:44we'll get an insight into the criminal mind-set...
0:00:44 > 0:00:45No, honestly, I don't know!
0:00:45 > 0:00:48..and uncover the unseen journey that our treasured possessions take
0:00:48 > 0:00:50when they're stolen.
0:00:56 > 0:00:59Today, we're on the trail of a stolen laptop
0:00:59 > 0:01:01as an opportunist thief goes walkabout.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03It's a classic piece of deception theft.
0:01:03 > 0:01:05The victim's attention has been distracted
0:01:05 > 0:01:07and he's just gone for it.
0:01:07 > 0:01:10Plus, a crooked businessman who feels nothing is sacred
0:01:10 > 0:01:12when it comes to handling stolen goods.
0:01:12 > 0:01:16He is a very callous man with no feelings whatsoever
0:01:16 > 0:01:18for what he does to other people.
0:01:18 > 0:01:22And cutting-edge tracking technology is hot on the heels
0:01:22 > 0:01:24of a gang of international truck snatchers.
0:01:24 > 0:01:27I walked round where the office was and that's when I saw
0:01:27 > 0:01:30the office door kicked in and I realised right then
0:01:30 > 0:01:32that the lorries had been stolen.
0:01:36 > 0:01:41Laptops are among the most desirable electronic gadgets around.
0:01:41 > 0:01:45Over 65% of us in the UK have one,
0:01:45 > 0:01:48putting it high up the computer consumers shopping list.
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Unfortunately, that also makes these highly priced portables
0:01:52 > 0:01:55a prime target for thieves.
0:01:55 > 0:01:58To help us get an understanding of the criminal mind,
0:01:58 > 0:02:00we've enlisted the help of Keith Farquharson,
0:02:00 > 0:02:04former Metropolitan Police inspector and security consultant
0:02:04 > 0:02:07with over 30 years' experience.
0:02:07 > 0:02:10Police figures show that over 34% of all thefts in Central London
0:02:10 > 0:02:12are computer related thefts -
0:02:12 > 0:02:14that's purely because it's so easy to sell on
0:02:14 > 0:02:16and make a good profit out of it.
0:02:16 > 0:02:18And once your laptop's stolen,
0:02:18 > 0:02:20there's little you can do to trace it,
0:02:20 > 0:02:25unless of course you have it fitted with a tracker like this.
0:02:25 > 0:02:29It's a GPS tracking device, with a battery as small as a matchbox.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32Depending on how many signals the tracker sends out,
0:02:32 > 0:02:36the battery can often last for up to 14 days.
0:02:36 > 0:02:37So this is a tracking device
0:02:37 > 0:02:40and that means that the device is able
0:02:40 > 0:02:43to figure out its location. How does it do that?
0:02:43 > 0:02:47Well, it does that by using a technology known as GPS -
0:02:47 > 0:02:49global positioning system -
0:02:49 > 0:02:53and the core of that technology is the ability of this device
0:02:53 > 0:02:57to measure the range from this device to orbiting satellites.
0:02:57 > 0:02:59Once you've got those numbers
0:02:59 > 0:03:02you can plot the position of this device on a map.
0:03:02 > 0:03:06Now all I've got to do is just place the tracker and the battery
0:03:06 > 0:03:09gently inside, making sure that it's not visible from the outside.
0:03:09 > 0:03:12With the tracker fitting snugly under the keyboard,
0:03:12 > 0:03:15a thief would never suspect it's there.
0:03:15 > 0:03:18Here you have the laptop with GPS tracker installed.
0:03:20 > 0:03:23Now the tracker is secure we're heading to Soho
0:03:23 > 0:03:27because it is London's number one spot for personal theft.
0:03:27 > 0:03:31More than 850 such thefts took place in these streets
0:03:31 > 0:03:34in the 12 months to February 2015.
0:03:34 > 0:03:36In fact, the borough of Westminster as a whole
0:03:36 > 0:03:39is London's number one borough for all crime.
0:03:39 > 0:03:42All our towns and cities have hot spots like this,
0:03:42 > 0:03:44and we all know where they are.
0:03:44 > 0:03:48The location for our stakeout is a cafe in the heart of Soho.
0:03:48 > 0:03:52As you can see behind me, there's a footfall here of hundreds of people
0:03:52 > 0:03:57per hour going through, so ample opportunity for thieves to act here.
0:03:57 > 0:04:00The type of crime we can expect are opportunistic thieves acting singly,
0:04:00 > 0:04:04or distraction thieves acting as pairs or in teams.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08It's 7:30 at night,
0:04:08 > 0:04:12one of our production team is outside posing as a customer,
0:04:12 > 0:04:14drinking coffee, chatting on her phone,
0:04:14 > 0:04:18with the laptop clearly visible on the table.
0:04:18 > 0:04:22Now this isn't entrapment, she's not leaving the laptop unattended,
0:04:22 > 0:04:27she's doing exactly what we all do when we drop by our favourite cafe.
0:04:27 > 0:04:31Thief Trackers isn't about confronting and catching thieves red-handed,
0:04:31 > 0:04:34we just want to see what happens to a laptop
0:04:34 > 0:04:37when it's stolen and find out where its journey ends.
0:04:40 > 0:04:44Now we're underway, our larger overt cameras withdraw,
0:04:44 > 0:04:50leaving just these two small hidden cameras to catch the action,
0:04:50 > 0:04:55so it's just a question of time, as the team wait for a thief to pounce.
0:04:56 > 0:05:0015 minutes gone and no-one has paid any attention to the laptop.
0:05:02 > 0:05:05Wait, we might have some interest here...
0:05:05 > 0:05:07Maybe not.
0:05:11 > 0:05:15It's nearly 8pm, early by Soho standards,
0:05:15 > 0:05:17but still bristling with people.
0:05:17 > 0:05:21So far no-one has shown any criminal intent towards our laptop.
0:05:24 > 0:05:27Ah, here's someone having a sneaky peek.
0:05:27 > 0:05:29No, just curious.
0:05:31 > 0:05:34More than an hour now, and aside from the odd glance
0:05:34 > 0:05:37our laptop hasn't gained an awful lot of attention.
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Our researcher is really getting into her role as a cafe customer,
0:05:42 > 0:05:44distracted by a telephone call.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48Unfortunately, at this point one of our two hidden cameras loses power,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51so we're left with only this angle.
0:05:53 > 0:05:56Now hold on. Who is this man?
0:05:56 > 0:05:58The laptop's right in front of her,
0:05:58 > 0:06:01so it would take a brazen thief to whisk it from under her nose.
0:06:01 > 0:06:05But this is what happens when thieves work in pairs.
0:06:05 > 0:06:07What you can't see is
0:06:07 > 0:06:10our researcher has been distracted by someone out of shot
0:06:10 > 0:06:13and now once the victim's attention is taken away from the laptop,
0:06:13 > 0:06:15the other crook is free to make a move.
0:06:18 > 0:06:24Now he's got the signal from his mate and he's going for it!
0:06:24 > 0:06:27In the blink of an eye he's off.
0:06:27 > 0:06:30And there goes the accomplice.
0:06:30 > 0:06:32We can pick up the laptop with the tracker now,
0:06:32 > 0:06:34which shows the thief is heading south,
0:06:34 > 0:06:36through the Soho backstreets.
0:06:39 > 0:06:42Later, we trace the laptop's extraordinary journey
0:06:42 > 0:06:45through London's underworld.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47The thief knew this area quite well -
0:06:47 > 0:06:51it may well be that he's got contacts within the local area
0:06:51 > 0:06:53and selling it on to one of those.
0:07:01 > 0:07:03Thieves don't always work in pairs,
0:07:03 > 0:07:07sometimes theft can be the result of a criminal acting alone,
0:07:07 > 0:07:10prizing financial gain above any consideration
0:07:10 > 0:07:12for the feelings of his victims.
0:07:12 > 0:07:15That's what happened in Croydon, South London,
0:07:15 > 0:07:19with a catalogue of robberies that shocked a community.
0:07:19 > 0:07:22How someone could commit a crime like this -
0:07:22 > 0:07:25it's absolutely appalling in my view.
0:07:25 > 0:07:28And the cold-blooded actions of an unscrupulous local businessman
0:07:28 > 0:07:32who dealt in the spoils of graveside robbery.
0:07:32 > 0:07:34He is a very callous man
0:07:34 > 0:07:39with no feelings whatsoever for what he does to other people.
0:07:39 > 0:07:42He was unaware that police were about to catch him out
0:07:42 > 0:07:46with cutting-edge tracking technology invisible to the naked eye.
0:07:46 > 0:07:49Showing SmartWater on the cutting blades.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00This shameful tale of grave desecration began back in 2011,
0:08:00 > 0:08:05when a relative visiting Croydon Cemetery made a sad discovery.
0:08:05 > 0:08:07A member of the family came into the office,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09stated that their plaque was missing.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12A member of my team went out to the area to look at it
0:08:12 > 0:08:17and we found that a whole rose bed of bronze plaques had been taken.
0:08:17 > 0:08:18And that hit us straight away,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21we realised that some major crime had taken place
0:08:21 > 0:08:23and a number of memorials had been taken.
0:08:23 > 0:08:27We're not talking a handful here, but 900!
0:08:27 > 0:08:32Yes, 900, plaques worth roughly £150,000.
0:08:32 > 0:08:36Nothing was safe from the thieves, not even war memorials.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39The impact that this kind of crime has on families is immeasurable,
0:08:39 > 0:08:43people at all different stages of the bereavement journey,
0:08:43 > 0:08:46and the impact can hit them as greatly as it did on the day
0:08:46 > 0:08:48that they first had the bereavement.
0:08:48 > 0:08:53People just couldn't believe that someone would stoop to those levels.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56This bout of grave robbery soon came to the attention
0:08:56 > 0:08:58of Sergeant George Shannon.
0:08:58 > 0:09:00He's a key figure in Operation Ferrous,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04a nationwide clamp down on metal theft, which police estimate
0:09:04 > 0:09:08costs our economy over £700 million a year.
0:09:08 > 0:09:13Metal theft is the second biggest crime generator in the world after drugs.
0:09:13 > 0:09:18But the actual metal theft itself is undertaken by a variety of people
0:09:18 > 0:09:22from the desperate thief with drug problems to organised crime.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26Following a tip-off from trading standards officers,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30the police began to investigate a scrap metal dealer in Croydon.
0:09:30 > 0:09:34He seemed to have no scruples when it came to buying bronze plaques
0:09:34 > 0:09:35fresh from the graveside.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38His scrapyard was just a mile away from the cemetery -
0:09:38 > 0:09:40maybe just a coincidence?
0:09:40 > 0:09:4540% of all our metal thefts were within half an hour
0:09:45 > 0:09:47walking distance of this yard,
0:09:47 > 0:09:52which is disproportionate for a borough the size of Croydon.
0:09:52 > 0:09:57His actions were so despicable that they even shocked other criminals.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00For example, one person who gave us information said,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02"Whilst I may be no angel,
0:10:02 > 0:10:07"I don't believe in chopping up war dead plaques. He's gone too far."
0:10:09 > 0:10:13In May, 2012, the police mounted a raid on the yard
0:10:13 > 0:10:15to bring this unpleasant trading to a halt.
0:10:20 > 0:10:23And this is what's left of the yard now at the moment.
0:10:23 > 0:10:26It's where it all took place.
0:10:26 > 0:10:30Sergeant Shannon takes us back to the scene of the crime.
0:10:30 > 0:10:34Now an empty shell, it was once a hive of criminal activity.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38The police found more than 400 bronze plaques.
0:10:39 > 0:10:43They were all seemingly stolen from local cemeteries.
0:10:45 > 0:10:50People were shocked - even a lot of experienced police officers saying,
0:10:50 > 0:10:53"No-one's going to be robbing from graves in 2012,"
0:10:53 > 0:10:56and the sheer quantities they were doing it in
0:10:56 > 0:10:59for the sake of a relatively small amount of money.
0:11:00 > 0:11:04The crooked dealer had been paying as little as £1 for each plaque,
0:11:04 > 0:11:07well below its true value.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12But that hardly matters when you consider the emotional damage he'd been causing.
0:11:12 > 0:11:15There was plaques that had been there for 20 years
0:11:15 > 0:11:17to ones that had been there less than a year.
0:11:17 > 0:11:19Very touching, kind of moving ones -
0:11:19 > 0:11:22people had recorded when they had a still birth,
0:11:22 > 0:11:23when the child was born.
0:11:24 > 0:11:28Down at the back of the yard we found memorial plaques
0:11:28 > 0:11:31in the process of being chopped up.
0:11:31 > 0:11:36A vain attempt to disguise the stolen memorials before selling them on.
0:11:37 > 0:11:40He knew exactly what he was doing, but just didn't care.
0:11:40 > 0:11:43By chopping up the plaques he thought he'd get away with it.
0:11:43 > 0:11:47What he hadn't realised was that some of them had been marked
0:11:47 > 0:11:50with an invisible tracking system called SmartWater,
0:11:50 > 0:11:52it glows under ultra-violet light.
0:11:52 > 0:11:56Each bottle of SmartWater contains a unique forensic code
0:11:56 > 0:11:59that is registered to the individual owner of each bottle
0:11:59 > 0:12:02and can be applied to almost any item.
0:12:02 > 0:12:06Samples of this chemical taken from stolen property can be tested
0:12:06 > 0:12:09back at the lab to help trace its origin.
0:12:09 > 0:12:13The SmartWater was already on the memorial plaques
0:12:13 > 0:12:14marked by the gravesides.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18The trace elements were also showing where the various machines
0:12:18 > 0:12:21had chopped the plaques up,
0:12:21 > 0:12:25so it formed a continuous link - evidentially it's quite important.
0:12:25 > 0:12:29The scrap dealer was also unaware that the police had laid a trap for him,
0:12:29 > 0:12:32coating a lorry full of supposedly stolen
0:12:32 > 0:12:36high voltage industrial cable with this invisible tracking liquid.
0:12:36 > 0:12:40We marked it into three different delivery slots,
0:12:40 > 0:12:42each marked with SmartWater.
0:12:42 > 0:12:47Through his greed, paying way below market value for the goods,
0:12:47 > 0:12:50he accepted the goods knowing them to be stolen,
0:12:50 > 0:12:53and we found evidence of all three deliveries at the yard
0:12:53 > 0:12:55when we raided it.
0:12:55 > 0:12:58The police uncovered a whole host of stolen goods at his yard -
0:12:58 > 0:13:03the profits from his disgraceful dealings soon became all too evident.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08But this shady metal trader treated his arrest as a minor hiatus
0:13:08 > 0:13:10in his illegal activity.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14The reaction of the owner was completely deadpan,
0:13:14 > 0:13:20no remorse whatsoever, casual indifference to the whole situation.
0:13:20 > 0:13:23If this yard was not turning a blind eye to
0:13:23 > 0:13:25the people who were selling it
0:13:25 > 0:13:28those graves would not have been desecrated.
0:13:28 > 0:13:33Ironically, the dealer's own CCTV footage has him bang to rights,
0:13:33 > 0:13:36overseeing the destruction of the memorial plaques.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40The rogue metal merchant was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
0:13:40 > 0:13:43Perhaps not as severe as some of his victims would have liked,
0:13:43 > 0:13:46but hopefully they take some comfort in knowing that the crook
0:13:46 > 0:13:48has been brought to justice -
0:13:48 > 0:13:51preventing other families from suffering similar losses.
0:13:57 > 0:14:01When tracking down stolen personal electrical items,
0:14:01 > 0:14:03good results can be much harder to achieve.
0:14:03 > 0:14:08At Thief Trackers we're mounting our own undercover operation.
0:14:08 > 0:14:12Earlier on we fitted this GPS tracker into a laptop.
0:14:12 > 0:14:14While outside a Soho cafe,
0:14:14 > 0:14:17our victim was seemingly distracted by one crook,
0:14:17 > 0:14:20while a second man stole the laptop -
0:14:20 > 0:14:24unaware that our covert cameras saw his every move.
0:14:24 > 0:14:28The thief slipped away into the shadows, but where did he go?
0:14:28 > 0:14:31The tracking software now does the legwork for us.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33The data is stored online,
0:14:33 > 0:14:37mapping the laptop's journey from the moment of theft.
0:14:37 > 0:14:42So this device has got on board a form of communication technology.
0:14:42 > 0:14:44It's rather like the device has got a mobile phone on board
0:14:44 > 0:14:47and if you want to figure out where the device is
0:14:47 > 0:14:49you send it a message and say, "Well, where are you?"
0:14:49 > 0:14:52The device then communicates to you via the internet
0:14:52 > 0:14:55and sends you a set of information saying,
0:14:55 > 0:14:57"This is where I am right now."
0:14:57 > 0:14:59After the thief struck,
0:14:59 > 0:15:02the data shows he's walked away swiftly heading south,
0:15:02 > 0:15:06he stopped for almost two hours in the Whitcomb Street area.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11Our crime expert Keith Farquharson has been analysing the tracking data.
0:15:11 > 0:15:13As you can see, during the daylight hours
0:15:13 > 0:15:16this is a well-used cut through between parts of London,
0:15:16 > 0:15:18during the night-time
0:15:18 > 0:15:19it's not so well populated at all.
0:15:19 > 0:15:24In fact, it's very quiet although it is covered by CCTV.
0:15:24 > 0:15:27We've got a multi-storey car park here just over my right shoulder
0:15:27 > 0:15:31although that closes during the weekdays at 11:30pm.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34So the timeline does kind of fit in with that.
0:15:34 > 0:15:36He may have gone in there, looked at the laptop
0:15:36 > 0:15:40and may have secreted it and come back a short time later.
0:15:40 > 0:15:43The tracker shows the laptop continues its journey south
0:15:43 > 0:15:46to Villiers Street, alongside Charing Cross station.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48It stayed in this location overnight.
0:15:48 > 0:15:50Trying to keep an open mind on things.
0:15:50 > 0:15:52The person has either secreted it overnight
0:15:52 > 0:15:54and come back to it early the next morning,
0:15:54 > 0:15:58or kept it on them and slept rough around this location.
0:15:58 > 0:16:01As you can see over my right hand shoulder there's a shopping centre
0:16:01 > 0:16:04beneath Charing Cross station, where homeless people do sleep,
0:16:04 > 0:16:08and further down the road there's exactly the same, it's duplicated.
0:16:08 > 0:16:10So the mystery deepens.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14Was the thief sleeping rough in the city centre?
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Let's consider his activities the next morning.
0:16:18 > 0:16:22The tracking data reveals that at around 8:00am,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25the laptop crossed the River Thames at walking pace.
0:16:25 > 0:16:27It was heading towards a network of streets
0:16:27 > 0:16:29at the rear of the Old Vic theatre,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33meandering around Webber Street and Mitre Road.
0:16:33 > 0:16:36The trail that's indicated by the tracking system
0:16:36 > 0:16:39would indicate that the thief knew this area quite well.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41Just down the road a little bit from Webber Street
0:16:41 > 0:16:42is a homeless shelter
0:16:42 > 0:16:46where people do tend to congregate relatively early in the morning -
0:16:46 > 0:16:49that may be an indication that that's where the person was going,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52it may not. We'll have to keep an open mind on these things.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56It may well be that he's got contacts within the local area
0:16:56 > 0:16:58and selling it on to one of those,
0:16:58 > 0:17:02or just an on spec type sale to anybody that he approaches.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06Suddenly there was a change in the laptop's journey pattern
0:17:06 > 0:17:10when it moved to the north-east of London to the Balls Pond Road in Dalston.
0:17:10 > 0:17:14The data indicates that the laptop spent the weekend there.
0:17:14 > 0:17:15I think it's been passed on.
0:17:15 > 0:17:18All the indications are that this person that originally took it
0:17:18 > 0:17:21was very comfortable in the way that he was walking around.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23It was quite parochial,
0:17:23 > 0:17:26and then to go over to Dalston is quite a large leap.
0:17:26 > 0:17:29So perhaps our thief passed the laptop to an accomplice
0:17:29 > 0:17:31who took it to Dalston?
0:17:31 > 0:17:35But why did it then return to the city centre on the Monday morning?
0:17:35 > 0:17:38Was it being brought back to sell in the West End?
0:17:38 > 0:17:42By this point, our laptop's now seen more sights than an open top bus.
0:17:42 > 0:17:46It moved around the Charing Cross area, eventually heading to
0:17:46 > 0:17:49a building on Irving Street, a theatre ticket agency.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53It remained there for 11 hours and then the signal stopped.
0:17:53 > 0:17:58So at 1pm the GPS shows that the laptop was at the ticket booth behind us.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02That ticket booth has got a basement level to it,
0:18:02 > 0:18:04and with GPS it will only show you the location,
0:18:04 > 0:18:10it won't show you actually on what floor of that particular location it's on.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14So follow up enquiries would have to be made with staff there.
0:18:14 > 0:18:18We decided to visit the ticket agency to continue our hunt.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22We were welcomed by renowned theatre impresario Ashley Herman,
0:18:22 > 0:18:25producer of more than 35 West End shows
0:18:25 > 0:18:27and the founder of Encore Tickets.
0:18:27 > 0:18:29He was very surprised to see us.
0:18:29 > 0:18:32The only thing which is strange, I can't quite figure out is
0:18:32 > 0:18:34that the shop shuts at about eight o'clock at night,
0:18:34 > 0:18:37and yet you were still tracking it after that time,
0:18:37 > 0:18:39which implies that someone left it there.
0:18:39 > 0:18:42I don't think our staff would have noticed anyone coming in
0:18:42 > 0:18:45with a laptop any more than they would recognise someone coming in
0:18:45 > 0:18:47with a camera or a suitcase.
0:18:47 > 0:18:50And I guess it would be quite possible for them to just
0:18:50 > 0:18:53leave it under the stairs or shove it behind a box or something.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56I mean, it could of course just be discarded all this time.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58If any criminal activities are going on in London,
0:18:58 > 0:19:01particularly that could affect tourists one way or another,
0:19:01 > 0:19:03such as leaving stolen goods in a shop,
0:19:03 > 0:19:07we want to know about it and we want to help stop it,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10so we're a 100% behind what you're doing
0:19:10 > 0:19:13So our laptop travelled around for five days
0:19:13 > 0:19:14before the tracker signal stopped,
0:19:14 > 0:19:18possibly the shortest run in West End history.
0:19:18 > 0:19:22So the conclusion to the journey of this particular laptop is that,
0:19:22 > 0:19:25that it's ended around this particular area,
0:19:25 > 0:19:28probably at that ticket booth, but there's no evidence to indicate
0:19:28 > 0:19:32that anybody within the business of the ticket booth is responsible
0:19:32 > 0:19:36or had any dealings at all with that particular piece of property.
0:19:38 > 0:19:40It's a mystery what became of the laptop,
0:19:40 > 0:19:44but it's very likely that the thief discovered the tracker.
0:19:44 > 0:19:47That thief either destroyed it or made it unusable.
0:19:47 > 0:19:51It may be the street collectors have collected it and put it in a bin.
0:19:51 > 0:19:54Or he in fact has put it in the rubbish with the rubbish left out overnight.
0:19:54 > 0:19:57We don't win them all on Thief Trackers.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00And it looks like this time the thief got away with it.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03But the authorities are welcome to take a closer look at our
0:20:03 > 0:20:07surveillance footage and take action against the Soho street thieves.
0:20:12 > 0:20:16Criminality takes all forms, from the spur of the moment act by a
0:20:16 > 0:20:21petty thief to large scale robberies undertaken by organised crime gangs.
0:20:21 > 0:20:24Every day in the UK, ten lorries are stolen,
0:20:24 > 0:20:27often to order and with a very low recovery rate.
0:20:27 > 0:20:30On average, just 12% are found,
0:20:30 > 0:20:33so it's no surprise that haulage companies
0:20:33 > 0:20:36are looking for ways to protect their assets.
0:20:36 > 0:20:40Salfords, a village 24 miles south of London,
0:20:40 > 0:20:42close to the M25 orbital motorway.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47It's the setting for an audacious robbery
0:20:47 > 0:20:49by a gang of international lorry thieves.
0:20:49 > 0:20:53The police told me that there was approximately ten vehicles -
0:20:53 > 0:20:55there's a good million pounds worth.
0:20:55 > 0:20:58All that stood in the way was a hi-tech GPS tracking system...
0:20:58 > 0:21:00It was highlighting the speeds
0:21:00 > 0:21:03and the fact that the thieves were actually speeding in the vehicle.
0:21:03 > 0:21:05..and one man's dedication to duty.
0:21:05 > 0:21:08And I saw the office door kicked in and the whole office was trashed
0:21:08 > 0:21:11and then I realised that the lorries had been stolen.
0:21:14 > 0:21:18Paul Ruth has been a lorry driver for over 40 years,
0:21:18 > 0:21:22the last three for a waste management company near Gatwick Airport.
0:21:22 > 0:21:24I'm a Rolonof driver
0:21:24 > 0:21:27delivering containers to different companies.
0:21:28 > 0:21:31That can entail about 300 miles a day.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Paul's even forged a kind of bond with his 32 tonne machine.
0:21:35 > 0:21:37This is my little office.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39I sit in this lorry for eight hours plus a day,
0:21:39 > 0:21:42and it belongs to you, it's your area.
0:21:42 > 0:21:45Ah, nice.
0:21:45 > 0:21:50Rolonof lorries such as Paul's cost £115,000 each.
0:21:50 > 0:21:54Considering around £500 million worth of trucks and goods
0:21:54 > 0:21:56are stolen every year,
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Paul's looking after a very valuable asset.
0:21:59 > 0:22:02Sadly, criminals will find ways to steal anything,
0:22:02 > 0:22:04no matter how big it is
0:22:04 > 0:22:09as Paul was about to discover one weekend in September 2014.
0:22:12 > 0:22:13Well, that Sunday morning,
0:22:13 > 0:22:16I just come in cos I'd been away on holiday,
0:22:16 > 0:22:18family holiday for a week,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20and I just said to my wife,
0:22:20 > 0:22:23"I'll just go and check the lorry over and check the work,
0:22:23 > 0:22:24"see what I've got for tomorrow,"
0:22:24 > 0:22:28and arrived just after nine o'clock and the gates were open.
0:22:30 > 0:22:33The first thing that come into my mind was
0:22:33 > 0:22:36the other driver that I work with had come in on some overtime
0:22:36 > 0:22:39to maybe catch up, but then I realised that his car wasn't there
0:22:39 > 0:22:42and then I just looked over to where we parked the vehicles
0:22:42 > 0:22:44and both our Rolonofs were gone.
0:22:46 > 0:22:48I walked round where the office was
0:22:48 > 0:22:51and that's when I saw the office door kicked in.
0:22:51 > 0:22:55I just peered in there and the whole office was trashed.
0:22:55 > 0:22:57Thieves had broken in,
0:22:57 > 0:23:00smashing up the office in their hunt for the lorry keys.
0:23:00 > 0:23:04And then I realised right then that the lorries had been stolen.
0:23:04 > 0:23:06You know, I thought if anything would have ever happened
0:23:06 > 0:23:09maybe the diesel had been drained or something like that,
0:23:09 > 0:23:11but not to actually take the vehicle itself.
0:23:11 > 0:23:14It felt pretty invasive, really, cos it's not their lorry,
0:23:14 > 0:23:16it's my lorry that I drive every day,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19I've got my own personal possessions in it.
0:23:19 > 0:23:21I wasn't happy about that at all.
0:23:24 > 0:23:28With £230,000 worth of trucks stolen,
0:23:28 > 0:23:31Paul's first job was to call the police.
0:23:31 > 0:23:34And within eight minutes we had a police officer arrive,
0:23:34 > 0:23:37the first questions he asked me was, "Are the lorries tracked up?"
0:23:37 > 0:23:40- And I said, "Yes, they are." - As luck would have it,
0:23:40 > 0:23:44the company had recently invested in a GPS tracking system.
0:23:44 > 0:23:47The trackers that were put in to these lorries were only done
0:23:47 > 0:23:49I think about five months previous -
0:23:49 > 0:23:51not because they think it's going to get stolen,
0:23:51 > 0:23:53but it's to see where we are during the day,
0:23:53 > 0:23:57they can check this lorry's nearer to the job than that lorry,
0:23:57 > 0:24:01so it's beneficial for time, fuel costs as well.
0:24:01 > 0:24:02But these were techno-savvy crooks,
0:24:02 > 0:24:06they'd stripped all the electrical gadgetry they could find
0:24:06 > 0:24:09from the trucks in the hope of sabotaging the tracking systems.
0:24:12 > 0:24:16No-one could be sure the trackers were still operating.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18I was alerted by a phone call from my colleague
0:24:18 > 0:24:22saying that the depot had been broken into.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26So when I first logged onto the system,
0:24:26 > 0:24:30the tracking information gave me the whereabouts of the vehicle.
0:24:30 > 0:24:33Thankfully the tracker was undamaged,
0:24:33 > 0:24:37sending GPS signals to update their movements.
0:24:37 > 0:24:41This showed the stolen HGVs travelling east along the A13.
0:24:41 > 0:24:44It was a relief, knowing that the trackers were working.
0:24:44 > 0:24:48But then anxious that, were we ever going to get the vehicle back?
0:24:48 > 0:24:51The tracking data is recorded 24/7,
0:24:51 > 0:24:54logging the truck's location, speeds
0:24:54 > 0:24:57and whether the ignition is on or off.
0:24:57 > 0:25:02A quick look at the tracking history told John the thieves had struck
0:25:02 > 0:25:05on Saturday night, taking the lorries up to East London
0:25:05 > 0:25:08to hide them overnight.
0:25:08 > 0:25:11He constantly updated the police on the stolen trucks' positions,
0:25:11 > 0:25:15but decided to let the professionals take over.
0:25:15 > 0:25:17I actually gave them the permissions
0:25:17 > 0:25:19to log in to our tracking system
0:25:19 > 0:25:23and they could track for themselves and guide their police in directly.
0:25:23 > 0:25:26It was just waiting, see what happened next.
0:25:26 > 0:25:29The thieves weren't hanging about.
0:25:29 > 0:25:32The tracker showed them speeding north towards Chelmsford,
0:25:32 > 0:25:36and the likelihood was that the trucks were destined
0:25:36 > 0:25:39for Felixstowe Docks to be shipped abroad.
0:25:39 > 0:25:43The police gave chase, but these thieves were clearly no amateurs.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46They'd definitely driven a lorry before, especially with this,
0:25:46 > 0:25:49you've got a high and low range gearbox,
0:25:49 > 0:25:51it's got eight forward gears,
0:25:51 > 0:25:54they would have to have known how to change that up otherwise
0:25:54 > 0:25:57they wouldn't have got very far in the low range, it's quite slow.
0:25:57 > 0:25:59The vehicles had now reached the outskirts of Chelmsford
0:25:59 > 0:26:03and the data readout indicated the engines had been switched off.
0:26:03 > 0:26:06Unfortunately, when the police arrived,
0:26:06 > 0:26:08the truck rustlers had left the scene,
0:26:08 > 0:26:11although they had collected quite a haul.
0:26:11 > 0:26:16The lorries were found in a disused scrap merchants yard.
0:26:16 > 0:26:20The police told me that there was approximately ten vehicles there,
0:26:20 > 0:26:22each of them valued at around about 100,000,
0:26:22 > 0:26:25so there's a good £1 million worth of vehicles there.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29You heard it, £1 million worth of the latest in heavy-duty
0:26:29 > 0:26:34commercial transport, snatched back from under the criminals' noses.
0:26:34 > 0:26:36The owners of the other eight vehicles
0:26:36 > 0:26:38were delighted to have their trucks returned too.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41The police did suspect that the vehicles were going to go abroad.
0:26:41 > 0:26:43Waking up on a Monday morning,
0:26:43 > 0:26:45we would have discovered our vehicles gone
0:26:45 > 0:26:47and our tracking would have still worked,
0:26:47 > 0:26:51but it would probably have shown them going down the English Channel.
0:26:51 > 0:26:55So an international truck snatching operation had been thwarted
0:26:55 > 0:26:57thanks to cutting-edge tracking technology
0:26:57 > 0:27:00and one man's dedication to his work.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03Well, I keep my lorry under floodlights every night now.
0:27:03 > 0:27:05Make sure it's locked up every night.
0:27:05 > 0:27:07I don't leave anything personal in it any more,
0:27:07 > 0:27:10cos I don't want to lose it again.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12We didn't have all of our vehicles tracked,
0:27:12 > 0:27:14we've now gone over to tracking all of our vehicles.
0:27:14 > 0:27:18If they want to try a similar crime then they will be caught,
0:27:18 > 0:27:21we will track them and we will recover our property.
0:27:21 > 0:27:22I would say "good luck" to them,
0:27:22 > 0:27:24but I don't particularly want them to try
0:27:24 > 0:27:26cos of the inconvenience it causes.