Episode 7 Caught Red Handed

Thieves will steal our cars, our valuables -

just about anything they can get their hands on.

To cut down on crime and anti-social behaviour,

the police are now using new tactics

where the bad guys actually get caught in the act.

They're launching covert operations...

Keep pretending you're talking on the phone for a bit longer, mate.

..and setting clever traps.

The laptop he's about to steal is equipped with a tracking device.

-..that deliver unsuspecting crooks...

-Go, go, go.

..right into their hands.

And there are also ways that we, the public, and local businesses

can fight back with some tricks of our own.

I weren't going to sit back and let them do this.

We've caught you and we're sending you down.

So anyone who's up to no good had better think twice.

They might just get caught red-handed.

Coming up today on Caught Red Handed,

cable theft - expensive, annoying,

even dangerous.

Police roll out a bait cable drum

loaded with a camera and a tracking device to catch thieves in the act.

Also coming up, it looks like a professional rally race

but it's actually illegal drivers

on a public road in Birmingham.

I knew if we didn't do something

that there would be some serious harm or a fatality.

Also today, the thieves that would even steal a mobility scooter.

How can someone be so sick

and knowing that's for a disabled person and taking it?

For a number of years, metal theft has been a national problem

and for the last few years,

criminals have been going copper crazy -

specifically the copper found in cables.

British Telecom provide a large proportion of the cable

for communications in the UK.

Simon Davies is their security manager.

The price of copper has increased multiple times

over the past two or three years,

so thousands of tonnes of copper are stolen every year from our network.

Thefts like the ones you're seeing now

cost BT millions of pounds to replace

but the disruption to communications affects everybody.

Businesses are unable to trade, they're unable to take orders,

vulnerable people in their homes

are unable to make telephone calls they might need.

It has a huge effect on communities.

So cable theft costs time and money

and it could even cost you your life.

Filmed from the cab of a fire engine,

what happens next is a direct result of cable theft.

Another fire engine's camera captures the explosion

and then a second house also blows up.

Incredibly, no-one was hurt as the houses had been evacuated

after residents reported a smell of burning.

It was just pure chance

that no firefighters were inside at the time.

This happened because thieves had earlier stolen copper from the overhead power lines,

leaving a stray live wire dangling down onto the ground.

High voltage electricity found its way

to the gas pipes feeding the houses,

superheating them to such a degree that they exploded.

So, while thieves want to get their hands on copper,

the coppers are really keen to get their hands on the thieves.

In West Sussex, PC Chris Dicker is using a new method

to help stop this dangerous and reckless crime.

One of the ways we're trying to combat this

is with this bait cable drum.

Somewhere on this drum - police don't want it shown where -

there's a spy camera and a satellite tracking device.

So as soon as this gets lifted,

it will send a text to my phone

and we'll be able to track it.

These cable crooks even put their own lives on the line.

People take such risks to steal it,

like hammering through generators and stuff like that.

It's in everybody's interests to deter this kind of crime

by catching people in the act

and Chris thinks he knows the perfect place

to, er...drum up trade.

There's a new housing development

in the process of being completed at the moment.

They've had a lot of reports of sus vehicles and that

turning up looking for scrap,

so what I've decided to do is,

just out of that area, at this substation behind us,

is to leave the BT cable drum there

as if it's like one of BT's own employees has just left it there.

These shots are from the tiny camera hidden on the drum.

If I leave it this way, hopefully we'll get a picture of a vehicle

or them walking up to it from the camera,

so I think this is probably the best position to put it in.

Cable drum dropped, now it's a wait

to see if anybody takes the bait in the next 24 hours.

Next morning, he comes in to find it's had an eventful night.

Since you left us,

we've had our cable drum that we put out yesterday stolen.

The bait cable drum was left yesterday lunchtime

and coming up to tea-time, barely four hours later,

the camera inside captures a passing motorist

taking more than a passing interest.

5:39 hours - we'll have a vehicle pull up from the left-hand side.

We then see the gentleman, he's obviously noticed the bait drum.

He's got out, approached it,

and then see, he's probably inspecting it and having a look

to see whether it's going to be worth anything to him or not.

He's then called a second person over, he's got out of the car

and in a moment, you'll see them wheel it off.

In broad daylight, the pair brazenly roll the drum towards their car

but they don't know the camera's also rolling,

catching the registration number of the car in the process.

But Chris doesn't just have pictures.

His fellow officers followed the tracking signal

and caught the thief red-handed.

That was recovered at an address in Hailsham,

whereby it was found in the occupants' car.

He's been interviewed and admitted taking it from the side of the road.

A successful result.

The driver was given an official caution with the warning

that if he's caught doing anything like this again,

he'll face a heavier sentence.

Chris and the team know

the more people they can trap with their bait drum,

the less likely people are to steal cable in the area.

This person is going to talk to his mate,

who's going to talk to his mate, who's going to talk to his friend,

so it's a question of spreading that climate of fear

that if they see something lying at the side of the road,

is it baited or not?

At the end of the day, if it's not yours, you shouldn't be taking it.

There are many reasons why people steal

but sometimes, it's just an overwhelming desire

to have an unaffordable luxury

that proves too tempting to resist.

Musician Kelvin Ho runs this guitar shop.

He's used to people occasionally murdering Stairway To Heaven

but after three expensive guitars were stolen from his shop,

he decided this was a musical crime too far

and invested heavily in a decent CCTV system.

It soon proved a wise investment.

This young man walks in one afternoon,

guitar case over shoulder,

seemingly just to browse around.

Up on the wall, a classic Gretsch, worth around £2,500,

has caught his attention.

At that price, it's out of the reach of most people,

but not for this young man.

After grabbing the Gretsch,

he opens up his guitar case to reveal it's actually empty.

This is not the case for long, as he conceals the guitar inside.

Yet he doesn't fret about what he's done,

and calmly looks around the store for a few minutes

before walking out.

When Kelvin later discovered the guitar was missing,

he filed a police report

and put the footage up on the internet

to expose the thief publicly.

It proved instrumental.

The next day, the young man was marched in

by his extremely upset mother...

..to return the guitar.

# Highway to hell

# On the highway to hell... #

The mother begged for mercy,

saying he hadn't stolen anything before.

Feeling sorry for her, Kelvin decided not to press charges.

Hopefully, that young man will change his tune in the future.

Now, still to come on today's Caught Red Handed...

A covert operation to stop a dangerous crime -

illegal street racing.

You can see that the pedestrians here move out of the way,

and God forbid if that vehicle would have crashed into the side.

And another shoplifter caught on camera.

This one's not after a guitar, but a luxury blanket,

and you wouldn't believe the lengths he goes to to get it.

With CCTV cameras everywhere,

some people are saying that we're living in a surveillance society,

but as far as the police are concerned,

the more eyes looking out for the bad guys, the better.

Police welcome CCTV footage from members of the public.

It helps solve crime more quickly.

For example, when offenders are in police custody

and they're presented with CCTV evidence,

they're far more likely to plead guilty.

And of course, having CCTV outside your house

acts as a real deterrent.

In our next story, a man rigs up a CCTV camera system

to protect his house, and ends up helping out the neighbourhood too.

A few years ago, 38-year-old father of five Tariq

was diagnosed with severe pulmonary hypertension,

a disease affecting the heart and lungs.

I'm very limited in my mobility.

Sometimes when I'm trying to do normal things around the house

or trying to do the shopping, it causes me severe breathlessness

where I get chest pains and I'll start bringing up blood

because I've exerted myself so much.

If his condition gets worse, he could face an organ transplant.

In the meantime, a recent spate of crime in the neighbourhood

convinced him to rig up a four-camera surveillance system

around the outside of his house.

I had CCTV installed mainly for my own safety and my children's safety.

I felt a bit insecure, especially being disabled.

What Tariq didn't know was just how much crime his cameras would catch.

Just gone 3:00am.

A shadowy figure approaches Tariq's Ford Galaxy on the drive,

and starts fiddling around behind it.

He later goes to the back of two further cars in the street.

His intention? Arson.

The back of Tariq's car has caught fire.

Fortunately, another resident sees this

and runs up to hammer on his door.

I open the door to him, I said, "Come on in."

You know, ran into the kitchen,

got some pots and I chucked one at him.

I got one, I filled it with water, and he started filling up,

and I ran out and I started chucking it all over the car.

Tariq and his neighbour fought the flames

until the fire brigade arrived, but the car was gutted.

I felt absolutely devastated.

I was absolutely devastated that my car had been destroyed.

The Galaxy seven-seater meant a lot to me.

I have a lot of kids

and I do a lot of running around with family.

All the stuff as well, in the car. It meant a lot to me.

That was my pride and joy.

Five cars in total had been ignited that night.

Though at least Tariq, with the police in tow,

could check his cameras' footage to identify the perpetrator.

I was going through, and I recognised the guy who put my car on fire.

I said, "That looks like such-and-such person."

Eventually, with the information that they got from me,

they managed to make an arrest.

22-year-old Niall Key was caught

and sentenced to five years in prison.

A result, yes, but incredibly,

those cameras were going to come in useful again very soon,

because sadly, that wasn't the end of Tariq's bad luck.

Just days after suffering at the hand of one criminal,

Tariq was to become the victim of another callous crime.

Now with no car and a wait for the insurance money to come through,

Tariq was left with only one way of getting about -

his mobility scooter.

I bought a mobility scooter a couple of years ago,

but when the car burnt out,

I thought, well, what I could do is now is,

I could jump back onto the mobility scooter.

The mobility scooter needed a new fuse,

so Tariq went to buy a replacement.

With his return came an unpleasant surprise.

I thought, "Where's the scooter gone?"

And to my shock and horror, the scooter wasn't there,

so I started shouting to the kids,

I said, "Suleiman, where's the scooter?

"Sara, where's the scooter?"

And all I heard was, "I don't know, Dad. I don't know."

I said, "Are you messing about with me?"

They said, "No, we're not messing about, Dad."

So, another trip upstairs to look at the CCTV tapes,

and another depressing sight.

Just down from Tariq's drive, this scrap van has pulled up.

The mobility scooter, parked by the door,

has caught the driver's eye.

He sends his mate over to have a closer look.

So he tried the door, and obviously,

there was no response because no one was in,

so he thought, "Field day. I can have the scooter for nothing."

The driver leaps out as well to lend a hand.

In broad daylight, the pair heave the scooter across the road

and then struggle with the weight

as they try to hoist it up onto the fully stocked van.

Seeing as it's giving the two able-bodied men such a hard time

to do this, you'd think they might spare a thought

for the less physically able person they're nicking it from.

Nope. They just drive off.

I feel that's very, very cheeky.

How can people, knowing that a mobility scooter

is for someone who is disabled, come on your drive and just take it?

That scooter brand new is worth £2,000.

To me, I can't comprehend how can someone be so sick

and knowing that is for a disabled person and taking it.

Police are hunting the thieves, who are still at large.

A few months on, and insurance paid out.

Tariq has been able to replace his car and scooter.

But as he previously had both taken from him

in the space of four weeks, you wouldn't have blamed him

for wanting a change of scene.

It just made me feel like I just wanted

to sell the house and move on.

And in another way, I kind of feel like, why should I run away?

Why should I run scared?

Why should I give the children that impression,

that it's better to walk away or it's better to run away,

and we should fear criminals?

You know, and so I thought,

no, I'm not running away from no-one.

Instead, Tariq is using his CCTV system

to help clean up the neighbourhood generally.

I'm so happy that I've got it, I would never change it.

In fact, I've had a lot of people approach me

and they've always asked me,

"Can you look back on such-and-such day for me,

"because this happened to me?"

So I was more than happy to oblige them to have a look.

I felt very happy about it.

Most thieves try to act quickly, to get away as soon as possible,

but not our next thief.

A contender, perhaps, for the most drawn out theft award.

In Ohio, the couple who own this store

went back through this CCTV footage after noticing

that a blanket like this had been stolen the day before.

And this is what they saw -

the blanket that went missing is here.

Watch this man with a baseball cap and beard closely.

He quickly grabs the rolled-up blanket

and puts it down on the floor out of prominent view.

He then makes a great show of not looking at the blanket,

checking his watch and talking to another customer.

As the shop fills up, he gets spooked

and walks to another part of the store.

But just over a minute later, he's back,

and moves the blanket once more,

behind a stand out of camera view.

Taking off his jacket, he places it over the blanket on the floor.

He then picks up his jacket with the blanket wrapped inside it.

But just before he makes the door, one of the shop owners walks in.

Fearing she may be watching him, he then swiftly puts

the blanket into a cupboard

and pretends to look at something else...

..when it seems he really, REALLY wants to steal this blanket,

and he spends the next few minutes waiting for the perfect opportunity.

Finally, he reaches between two other shoppers

engrossed in conversation,

wraps blanket in coat once more and leaves the shop.

And that would have been that,

but the store owners put this footage up on the internet.

Recognising the thief, locals came forward in their droves

and provided his name, address and even phone number.

Shamed by his crime, the thief quickly returned the blanket,

leaving it on the shop doorstep.

That's all stitched up, then!

Now, to a different type of crime altogether

and one that's potentially life-threatening.

Between June 2011

and July 2012, there were nearly 25,000 people killed

or seriously injured on our roads and a quarter of these were caused

by dangerous driving, reckless driving and speeding offences.

Cameras have vastly reduced the number of collisions on our roads

and we've seen a 35% reduction at camera sites nationally.

But some people make a sport out of dangerous driving.

ENGINES REV

The screeching, squealing world of illegal underground street racing.

At night, dozens of cars and bikes tear around the roads

we use every day, while hundreds of spectators cheer them on...

..the driving often reckless, accidents frequent.

MAN SHOUTS

The problem was so bad in Birmingham, in particular,

that worried about the potential loss of life,

police launched a covert operation to crack down on it.

Sergeant Paul Bieliauskas was part of the investigation team

tasked with stopping the races.

People would turn up en masse and then race along the public road.

We had speeds of 127mph.

This will go on up until about one, two o'clock in the morning,

keeping up residents,

but this is all about public safety - somebody will die.

24-year-old Chris Sinclair knows all too well

about the dangers of street racing.

He had just left work for the night on his motorcycle.

Ahead, two cars had started racing each other

on this single-lane main road,

weaving in and out of traffic.

At this junction, one lost control and swerved at 70mph

right into Chris, who was coming the other way.

What I do remember from the accident was crunching, engine noise,

a sound of a high-revving car, another crunch,

and then it all went quiet and I closed my eyes then.

The car that hit Chris's motorcycle was driven by Nikash Sultan.

His car was so badly damaged by the impact that it couldn't move.

The other car was driven by Umair Qureshi.

He fled the scene of the accident.

It was two whole weeks later before Chris woke up in hospital.

I've been told when the car hit me,

I was 50-odd metres down the road, you know,

my body was higher than the lamppost, top of the lamppost

I was spinning in the air and I landed quite hard on my neck.

The damage to his brain, caused by the blow he'd received, had left him

temporarily unable to recognise his friends and work colleagues.

He had shattered his left leg, with the ankle, knee, thigh bone

and hip all broken.

Both his wrists were fractured

and there were three breaks in his neck, which meant he had to wear

a metal head brace for three months, day and night, while they healed.

He had also lost the sight in his right eye -

all as a result of the foolhardy driving of two men.

It was exactly to avoid this kind of accident happening

that the police wanted to clamp down on the illegal street races

congregating in Birmingham.

When Paul and his fellow officers came across these gatherings

they were a no-go zone, even for the police.

It was too dangerous because there was 400-500 people, literally.

A number of people damaged police vehicles - they have flat tyres

or windscreens had been smashed by people throwing bricks.

Outnumbered, Paul and his colleagues needed a new tactic.

They had to get intelligence on who the regular offenders were.

They pinpointed this set of traffic lights as key to identifying

and catching them.

Two vehicles would pull up alongside each other

and race from the traffic lights into the distance.

REVVING

They'll do a track along the Heartlands Parkway and the A47

and come back and literally do the same thing again.

Paul and the team asked special permission from

Birmingham City Council to install surveillance at this crossing.

They fit multiple cameras with microphones.

If the racers stop here, then they can be clocked

and their numberplates read.

And when the footage comes back, even experienced officers

are shocked by the behaviour these cameras capture.

While one car waits at the lights,

another one fails to brake in time.

God forbid if that vehicle would have crashed into the side,

heaven knows what would have happened.

But the worst was yet to come.

A 15-year-old boy is taken out into the middle of the speeding traffic

by the adult in charge of him and encouraged to start a race.

A few minutes later, he's back out on his own again.

And I knew if we didn't do something, that there would be

some serious harm or a fatality.

But now the police COULD do something.

With this footage, they could identify the cars

and numberplates of offenders

and when the culprits were unmasked, there was a surprise.

The term "boy racer" doesn't describe them.

The majority of people are late 30s, early 40s,

that have grown up with this culture.

The police brought 400 separate prosecutions,

with many receiving heavy fines and driving bans.

The operation has had a massive impact.

Street racing has significantly reduced to the point where

members of the public and local businesses are saying,

"This is no longer a racetrack," and they're able

to go about their daily business and use the road as they once did.

The two reckless drivers that caused Chris's horrific crash

were eventually found guilty of dangerous driving

and jailed for 16 months apiece.

They were also banned from being behind the wheel for five years.

Chris faces a long struggle to recover but he's now engaged

and getting on with his life.

He has a message, though, for anyone tempted to race.

Go to Silverstone, take your car

as fast as you can round there.

If you crash,

you crash into the tyre wall,

you're crashing into sand.

Don't put other people's lives at risk.

It's just not worth it.

Join us next time when the police

and the public catch more crooks red-handed.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd