Episode 8 Thief Trackers

Bag snatchers, robberies and street crime.

According to police figures, more than 3,500 theft incidents

are reported every day in the UK.

They stole part of my life.

But have you ever wondered what happens to our belongings

when they're stolen?

Thief Trackers tells the story of where they go.

We're hiding satellite tracking devices inside a range of

desirable everyday items

like cameras, Smartphones and bicycles

to trace the looters' footsteps.

The thieves think they've got away with it,

but we're tracking their every move.

With secret filming, CCTV and police raid footage...

Police officers with a search warrant. Open the door.

..we'll get an insight into criminal mind-set

and uncover the unseen journeys that our treasured possessions take

when they're stolen.

Today, we're on the trail of a team of distraction thieves who swipe

a handbag, unaware that its contents are fitted with a GPS tracker.

These two are so audacious and matter of fact,

they just walk along the street,

like another day at the office and they're away.

Plus, a Christmas burglar is oblivious his every move

is being monitored by the police.

He didn't believe the system was as reliable as it was.

I can only put this down to sheer stupidity.

And two amateur detectives use the latest technology

to track down a building site bag snatcher.

We were looking for someone who was close proximity to us

cos that's what the phone was telling us,

a matter of meters away,

and then that's when the real nerves kicked in. Will he draw a knife on us?

You just don't know what you're tackling at that point.

The threat of personal theft is ever present.

In the year to March 2015 there were almost 70,000

recorded incidents of this kind across the UK.

Snatch thieves will target wallets, Smartphones and handbags.

They usually operate in busy areas,

making our cities most vulnerable.

In fact, London accounts for almost half of the UK's personal robberies.

Former Metropolitan police inspector Keith Farquharson

is helping us with our investigation.

Statistically, there's over 1,600 reported bag thefts

each day in the UK.

The bags may be taken to a different place

where the thief would look through the bag

and take items that are saleable and that they may be able to clone,

so identity theft may well be on the cards if you leave

credit cards, driving licences, passports, for example,

within the bags, and not just mobile phones and other electrical devices.

After a theft like this,

what happens to the valuables inside?

Where do they go?

It's unlikely the victims will ever see their possessions again,

unless they have fitted them with a GPS tracker like this.

It uses a technology known as GPS,

the Global Positioning System,

and the core of that technology is the ability of this device

to measure the range from here to orbiting satellites.

Those satellites will be about 20,000km away.

We've chosen to fit a tracker into the display

box of an exclusive designer watch

because there is a large second-hand market

for designer and luxury timepieces,

ideal for thieves looking to make some quick cash.

It may be that the thief will keep the watch for their own benefit,

their own use,

or try to sell it on depending on the value of it,

the type of watch and the saleability of it.

They would generally go to a pawn shop to do that or perhaps

even individually advertise it on the internet.

We're off to the London Borough of Westminster.

It's the number one spot for "theft from the person"-style robberies.

As you can see, it's a busy part of London.

Lots of pedestrian traffic,

people drinking outside and lots of opportunities for the thieves.

There are places like this in towns and cities across the country.

We all know where the hot spots are where we live.

In busy areas it pays to be extra vigilant,

as thieves don't always work alone.

When you see two thieves working together,

it's usually for a distraction-type offence,

whereby one would take, literally distract the victim's attention,

the other one will move in for the property.

And, of course, there's always somebody on hand

to help them escape if they're challenged.

We're sending a member of our team into the target area

carrying an ordinary, unassuming bag.

Our designer watch is inside,

along with a GPS tracker.

She's made her way to a bar and stops outside to make a phone call

with her bag right next

to her on the pavement.

From the data, we can see

that the tracker is live.

This kind of scenario could happen anywhere.

She's doing what we all might do when we're out.

We're not trying to confront thieves.

We just want to find out where our stolen items go.

We have two hidden cameras ready to catch the action.

Now it's just a case of waiting to see what happens.

It isn't long before our bag attracts some attention.

Watch this man, here.

He's ambling past, taking a good look at the bag.

Shortly after, here he is again for a second look.

But it seems he's not brazen enough to go for it.

Presently, there's more interest.

Keep your eye on this woman in the stripy top.

She seems innocent enough,

as though she's waiting for someone,

but is she trying too hard to look inconspicuous?

Or, is she sizing up our handbag?

Now another woman arrives.

It looks like the pair have sussed that our producer is distracted

by her phone call.

They have a close eye on her handbag.

The second woman leaves.

Shortly after, the woman in the stripy top sashays past.

It looks like she's with this guy,

but actually she's just chatting to a random passer-by,

in an attempt to blend in.

Moments later she returns.

While our victim is distracted,

the handbag is gone in a second.

Blink and you'd miss it.

But our camera catches the moment of the theft,

as she dips down and swipes the bag.

This is a classic act of teamwork.

The suspicious pair stroll by.

One of them seems to hold up his jacket

to mask her from passersby

while she grabs the bag.

The tracker now picks up the trail

and we can see the thief heading off towards London's Chinatown.

Later, we follow the stolen bag and the watch inside...

We do find wallets up here.

Small handbags or purses down there.

..as the thief makes her way through London's backstreets.

All over the UK,

law enforcers are using GPS tracking technology

in the fight against crime.

This technology has become to appear in court cases now.

We call it forensic GPS and actually

it's a way of putting criminals directly behind bars

because we can prove that they were at a particular place

at a particular time.

In December 2013,

West Midlands Police were surprised by the extent to which the technology

would reveal one criminal's trail of heartless Christmas robberies.

This had a profound impact on the victims of these crimes

and it ruined their Christmases.

This case took place in the outer suburbs of Birmingham.

It's the patch patrolled by Sergeant Sharon Revitt

of the South Yardley neighbourhood team.

South Yardley and Small Heath is a very diverse area.

Lots of families living here.

A lot of young people,

but also we have the elderly as well, so it's a really good mix.

A very friendly community.

Friendly it may be,

but, in common with many inner city areas,

it still has an undesirable element,

some of whom are intent on breaking and entering.

Burglary takes up about 5% of our overall crime in South Yardley.

It's absolutely a force priority.

The effect of a burglary on a victim can be life-changing.

It's not just about the monetary value of what you lose.

Often sentimental items are stolen

and often people feel traumatised

at the fact that someone's come into their home uninvited.

It was in November 2013 that one particular thief

embarked on a series of break-ins.

Sergeant Ian Comfort of West Midland Police followed the case.

Seven burglaries were committed during the space of just over a week

on the run up to Christmas, right in the middle of the festive period.

Various items were stolen that were easily portable.

Handbags, jewellery, Nintendo Wii computer games system, televisions,

all items that were then fairly easy for the suspect

to sell on afterwards.

For one victim, it was especially heartbreaking.

During the second of the seven offences,

the suspect broke into the home address of an elderly lady

who tragically had recently lost her husband.

Amongst the items that were stolen from her were his wedding ring.

Obviously, this particular item of jewellery had a great

amount of sentimental value and it was very precious to her.

We see more calls about burglary come through to us

around the Christmas time

probably than any other time of the year.

We're talking about Christmas presents being stolen,

their home has been violated just coming up to Christmas,

children being upset,

so in terms of the financial suffering

but also the emotional impact as well.

It does have a huge effect on people's lives.

So, seven robberies taking place in 14 days,

in such a small target area?

The police rapidly spotted several similar methods of break-in,

which suggested the same culprit.

We were able to see that the offences had all been

committed in roughly the same manner and using the same MO.

Approaching the house from the back and forcing entry during the day

while the occupants were out.

Officers quickly identified their chief suspect

and GPS technology played a crucial part in the operation to catch him.

West Midlands Police had been piloting a new ankle-tagging

system to monitor persistent criminals released on licence.

The purpose of the trial was to experiment with the use of

GPS technology and the tracking of prolific offenders,

reducing their reoffending and rehabilitating.

For the wearer, they benefit from reduced attention from the police

in terms of overnight curfew checks.

They benefit from being eliminated early

earlier than they would have been otherwise from the investigations.

This GPS tracking system pinpoints the whereabouts

of the tag wearer by plotting the signals on a map.

There was one habitual criminal on the officers' watch list.

The suspect hadn't long been out of prison.

It was a matter of days between him coming out of prison

and being fitted with a tag.

We asked him whether or not he wanted to wear a tag

and he agreed. He volunteered to wear one,

so one was fitted to him.

Let's get this right.

A suspect actually volunteered

to wear a GPS tag

that shows his whereabouts 24/7?

Sure enough, it seems he was the Christmas crim the officers were looking for.

Once we checked the suspect's tag against the offence locations

and the times between which the offences were committed

we were able to see that there was a link between the suspect and the offences.

Surely no criminal could be as dim as this, could they?

Well, over the course of 14 days,

the GPS tag recorded each of his seven crimes.

He'd stolen presents from the homes of the elderly and vulnerable

but now he had given police an extraordinary gift.

Sergeant Comfort is analysing the route taken by the robber

on the sixth of his seven break-ins.

As you can see, it shows him walking down this road

and the cluster of points shows that he was in one place

for a longer period of time.

This is where the offence location was

and this is how we linked him to the burglary.

This is priceless.

A burglar wearing a tracker!

For police, all their Christmases had come at once.

The GPS tracker didn't just put the hapless thief at the scene of the crime.

Most crucially of all,

we were able to ascertain where he'd been, who he'd been speaking to,

what sort of premises he'd been to.

The dozy deviant was leaving a trail

so bright the police could even track down the stolen property.

We were able to identify where the stolen property had been

disposed of and to whom, which led to us recovering

a number of items of jewellery from some second hand shops.

By tracing the cloth-headed criminals' movements,

the police could access CCTV from the area - which reaped further rewards.

This in turn gave us

the identity of another offender who had been involved in the offences.

Having sold their ill-gotten gains, the pair were caught on CCTV

with wads of cash, plus a mobile phone

that turned out to have been stolen.

All of these things proved crucial in convicting them.

The evidence was overwhelming.

He'd been out of prison for just two weeks,

but now the Christmas kleptomaniac

found himself back inside for TWO YEARS!

His accomplice, a three-time offender, got three years!

Ultimately the GPS tag was his downfall -

he didn't believe that this system was as reliable or robust

as we had spelled out to him that it was

when he first had it fitted to him.

I can only put this down to sheer stupidity.

Let's return to our own undercover surveillance operation.

Earlier, we fitted a GPS tracker into a designer watch display box

and went to the bustling streets of Westminster,

London's top borough for personal theft.

While our victim was distracted on the phone,

this happened.

The handbag with our watch inside was snatched by this woman

in a stripy top, shielded by her accomplice before they sneaked off.

These people are professional thieves.

They'll have their part of London,

their part of the town that they'll operate in.

They're confident,

they're comfortable in that particular area -

they usually work as a team.

As you can see from this particular clip,

at the start of it, there's two women that look at the bag.

Their attention is drawn to it. They go their separate ways

and the woman who actually does take the bag comes back with a gent,

with a man so there's a sort of a mix and match team here if you like

and they will cut that to fit whichever crime they want to use.

Time to let the tracker do its job.

We can see from the signal that the thief made her way south

towards London's famous Chinatown area.

Keith is on the case.

The thief struck at 6pm - within eight minutes,

the data showed that the watch was here in this alleyway

which is a short distance

from Gerard Street and Macclesfield Street.

The signal stays here for several minutes

in a quiet area behind several Chinese restaurants,

well away from the busy street.

There are various reasons why a thief would want to come

to a secluded spot like this - to have a look through the property

to see what they want to keep, maybe to meet their handler

and to pass the goods on, it may be to hide the goods to come back to

at a later time, erm, any one of those scenarios might be the reason.

It's likely the thief is checking out the bag

to see what she's stolen.

There's plenty of opportunity to dump what she can't sell.

In an alleyway like this, there's a number of dumpster bins

where a thief could take their property, take it away,

discard anything they don't like in the bin and of course

there are two or three takeaway services by the council

on this each day, therefore the property that's discarded,

go into the bin and it would be whisked away

without anybody knowing where it's gone.

It's not long before the tracker kicks into action

and is on the move again.

The data shows that the watch travelled from Shaftesbury Avenue,

north into Dean Street and then into

Romilly Street, which is behind me,

and the signal lasted for about four minutes,

after which time, it stopped.

That's not just a temporary failure.

It's a total, outright loss of signal

and the only conclusion is that the tracker has been destroyed.

So what happened?

Its last report came from the rear of this pub.

We went to see the manager to show her our surveillance footage

and ask if she'd seen our suspect - or any other thieves - in action.

We used to have the girls trying to sell flowers

who were getting mobile phones in the bottom of their skirts

so the police came in and cleared out a load of those last year.

You get people who sort of walk into pubs and target drunk people

and will actually talk to them,

you've got hugger muggers, you've got varieties of thieves,

and we have found bags and empty wallets in the toilets.

We do have a security guard outside,

but a woman walking in with a bag doesn't look like a bag thief -

she looks like a woman with a bag

This is the French House ladies.

I'm just going to make sure there's no-one in there. Yeah, it's clear.

Hilary showed us where she's found

discarded stolen property in the past.

You might get small handbags or purses down there.

We do find wallets up here.

I think they're bringing in bags that they've stolen from other pubs.

There's also The Golden Lion across the road.

When we've had people who have had bags nicked from outside,

they've found them in the next pub

so people grab, go into another place, sort out the goods.

Even so, our stolen handbag and the watch were nowhere to be seen

and the most likely cause for our tracker's destruction

is that the thief discovered it while sitting on the loo checking her loot,

then she threw it out of the window onto the building site next door.

We checked with the site, but they hadn't seen anything.

As for the handbag, it's possible that the thief dumped it in a bin

round the corner in Chinatown. And our designer trinket?

Unfortunately, it seems that is long gone.

The only way to find out the watch now would be at the point

of where it's been sold on which would be a pawn shop

or an internet site - perhaps eBay or Gumtree

or an individual seller on the internet.

A search of local pawn shops and internet sites

revealed no sign of the watch.

It seems the thief got away with it this time.

But we have a hunch that we've seen this criminal before.

When we recorded test footage for Thief Trackers in June 2014,

we witnessed a similar bag theft,

on the opposite side of the same street

where our latest incident took place.

It seems likely it's the same woman,

still up to her bag-snatching tricks a year later.

So now we have not one,

but two instances of her sticky-fingered activity on camera

and the authorities are welcome to take a closer look.

Maybe this sneaky lady will soon be helping the police

with their inquiries.

As our surveillance operation shows,

it only takes a moment for thieves to swipe at our possessions,

right when we least expect it.

That's what happened in Gravesend, Kent,

around 25 miles from central London along the Thames Estuary.

This historic market town was the setting for an audacious theft

right from under the victim's nose...

To me, that bag is worth thousands of pounds. Gut-wrenching!

..who then turned amateur detective

by hunting down the thief using mobile tracking technology.

I was running round like a headless chicken.

I just, er, couldn't believe that that could be done.

For the past five years, architect David Meaney

has worked with Jarek Luszcz, his business partner, builder and friend.

One day in June 2014, they were at work on their latest project,

a new block of flats.

It was just a normal day.

Jarek and I came to site - a weekly meeting.

At that stage, it was just a piece of waste ground land.

I took my belongings onto site, put the bag down,

didn't think anything of it and we were looking inside a manhole.

David uses the latest technology as a kind of portable office,

taking it wherever he goes.

One of the key things I need for doing what I do is a tablet -

keeps track of my diary,

appointments, clients, contact details.

I had drawings, electronic drawings so yeah,

what was on there was very important to me

and I couldn't afford to lose it.

He may have thought his bag was safe in the middle

of a busy building site, but a desperate thief can strike anywhere.

This bag was probably about in the middle of the site.

We were accompanied by two labourers as well

so didn't think anything sinister would happen.

Put the lid down,

came back, looked for my bag and it wasn't there,

as simple as that.

Yes, unfortunately it really is that simple.

The building site bag snatcher whipped it away just like this.

It took a minute to sink in,

because I thought maybe I put it somewhere else

and because we didn't see anybody coming in,

I didn't think it had been stolen

and I thought perhaps one of your guys had moved it

and then it sank in that someone had come into the site

and taken it away.

We tried to look down the road, but we don't see anything.

We don't see anyone who carry the bag.

I had an instant form of nausea. I realised what was in my bag

and on my tablet was priceless to me so yes, I did feel very sick

at the time, not knowing if I'd ever get to see my belongings again.

David's mind rushed through the implications

of losing his entire working universe in a bag,

but his colleague proved to be calm in the crisis.

Jarek was clever enough to say, um, what was in the bag

and I told him my iPad was in there and he said was the item on?

And I said it was.

And he said, "Don't worry about it," and he got out his phone.

So I just ask him does he know his password and login

and I said, "We can use my iPhone to the track your iPad and your bag."

Jarek knew that many tablets and phones

have built in GPS tracking software.

Using his phone to access the internet,

he logged into David's cloud account and activated the tracker.

It showed a little flashing dot where the iPad was

and then he said, "Do you want to go get it? Let's go and get it."

The map on Jarek's phone pinpointed the location of the stolen tablet -

unbelievably, it wasn't that far away,

approaching Gravesend town centre.

We drove up this road, obviously sticking to the speed limit,

but it felt like it was faster cos the adrenaline was pumping.

We were looking out for someone, probably with my bag,

so yeah, it felt like we were the police

and we were on our way to catch a criminal.

They called the police while in not so much hot but lukewarm pursuit,

they sped as fast as they could in a 20mph street,

all the while observing the Highway Code.

We knew that once he'd gone undercover

or if he stopped messing around with the keypad to unlock it,

we would then lose our signal.

If we didn't have a signal, we've got no way of tracking him.

The thief had now reached Gravesend's pedestrianized High Street.

Our dynamic duo were close so they ditched the car

and continued the chase on foot.

Faced with a busy street full of shoppers

and with no idea what the thief looked like,

they could only hope the tracker

would lead them right to the villain.

We were looking for someone who was in close proximity to us

cos that's what the phone was telling us -

a matter of metres away - but someone who looked shifty,

someone who didn't feel comfortable in their environment,

and we saw a gentleman in front of us who was on his own.

He had a bag - it wasn't my bag

so there was no guarantee that it was mine,

only that the phone was telling me

that your tablet is only two metres in front of you.

And we waited for him to walk up and down the street

to make sure the app on the phone

was giving us the correct information

and as he was walking, it was obviously increasing in distance

so we knew that was our man.

Jumping in without proof could have been embarrassing

so they managed to creep up close for a sneaky peek in the bag.

And I look at what he's got on the bag and behind him

and I see the end of the iPad.

Thumbs up to each other

and then that's when the real nerves kicked in - what do we do?

Do we tackle this guy to the floor?

Do we say, "Excuse me can we have my things back?"

Will he draw a knife on us?

You just don't know what you're tackling at that point.

If he's a criminal, who's to say he wouldn't do any of those things?

That's exactly why the police advise against tackling a suspect yourself -

you can't be sure of a safe outcome.

But these two were so confident, they decided to chance their arms.

I asked him, "Is it your iPad?"

He say, "No, I found it in the road,"

and so we know it is David's.

David came and I asked him, "David, this is your iPad?"

And he say, "Yes, definitely my one."

That old "I found it in the street" ploy wasn't going to wash

with Kent's answer to Starsky and Hutch.

We held him - we didn't force him to the floor,

but we did a full citizen's arrest

They hung on to their man for ten minutes

until the police arrived. That must have been an awkward conversation.

They interviewed him in the back of the van and that was our part done.

But I was pleased to get the iPad back

and not too long afterwards, I got a phone call

from a young lady in the local office,

asking if I'd lost anything else and I managed to retrieve my bag.

So, win-win.

So thanks to Jarek's quick thinking

and a clever piece of technology,

they managed to hunt down the bag snatcher

and recover the stolen tablet, but sadly this is not a common outcome.

The police said it's very rare that belongings of this nature

ever get back to the owners.

They were unaware of the app themselves at the time

so they were very impressed that we were able to apprehend

and find the items.

So what has David taken from this experience?

I've had my fingers burnt so now I've got the app.

I wouldn't change anything that I did then,

except I wouldn't leave my things too far out of reach.