Episode 14 Caught Red Handed


Episode 14

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Transcript


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Thieves will steal our cars, our valuables,

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just about anything they can get their hands on.

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To cut down on crime and anti-social behaviour,

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police and other agencies are using new technology and tactics

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while the bad guys are getting caught in the act.

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I can see the man actually commit the robbery. Lovely, thank you very much.

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Local councils, shops and businesses are laying some traps of their own.

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Why should we feel frightened for the rest of our lives?

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And the general public too can help unsuspecting crooks

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-get their comeuppance.

-No way are you getting away.

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We did it for everyone else that she might be stealing from.

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We will name and shame you.

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

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They might just get caught red handed.

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Today:

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Prepare for a shocking sight as two cowardly men with knives

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target a defenceless grandmother.

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But have no fear, Trude puts up the fight of her life.

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This is it. I remember saying, "This is it,"

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but let it go down fighting.

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They picked the wrong garage and the wrong woman to rob.

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Also today - a specialist thief steals laptops from offices.

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You can see there's a white cable hanging

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out of the bottom of his T-shirt and a suspicious rectangular item.

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Laptops may be replaceable but the loss of what's in them

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can have serious affects.

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He's hurt a lot of people.

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And, OK, we know thieves will take anything they can get hold of

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but giant bananas? Really?

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The village of Knowle on the North Devon coast.

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It's the autumn.

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The tourists have left and things have quietened down.

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A beautiful part of the world.

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But one evening, a local garage faces a dark threat.

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This security camera is recording the scene

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inside the Knowle garage shop.

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The manager, Trude, is about to close up for the night.

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What happens next is shocking.

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Trude's no security guard.

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She is just an ordinary shopkeeper, a grandmother, and she's all alone.

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Two robbers suddenly storm in and attack her.

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One's armed with a knife, the other with a meat cleaver.

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But it's important to know, although these are violent criminals,

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Trude somehow manages to avoid getting hurt.

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In fact, terrifying as this is,

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we'll see how the tables are about to turn on these criminals

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with the help of police technology

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and the courage of the woman they're attacking.

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It's hard making a living out here.

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Why should they come and take what's not theirs? I was angry.

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Detective Inspector Dave Atkinson

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of the Devon and Cornwall Police is also angry.

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They know that Trude is in there by herself.

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She's a 65-year-old grandmother

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and yet they put her through an absolute nightmare and deserve everything they're going to get.

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Trude and her husband have lived in Devon for seven years

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after moving from Tunbridge Wells in Kent.

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My daughter kept saying, "Why don't you come down here?

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Every time we come here on holiday, it's so lovely, it's a beautiful part of the world really

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so we came down here to be near her and the grandchildren.

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Trude's husband commutes to work to run a business there

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but he also bought the garage and shop in Knowle as a going concern.

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Trude helps manage it with her son-in-law.

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It's nice, a nice feel to it and we've got local staff.

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It is nice as well.

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The shop ticks over and usually days pass without incident.

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But Trude's glad to have the reassuring presence

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of the cameras that are installed.

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Having CCTV does give you a certain amount of feeling safe.

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Because you are quite vulnerable when you're there on your own.

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And Trude is on her own the night the armed robbers burst in.

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It's closing time at eight o'clock.

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Trude's put the day's takings in a safe

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and left a £50 float in the till. Now she's finishing up.

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We have to record the scratchcards we have sold

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so I was jotting down the numbers.

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But just then the doorbell rings and two figures approach crouching down.

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They looked like kids mucking about.

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Of course, then they came close and I realised.

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It's like a scene from a horror movie but it's real.

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The two men dressed in balaclavas and hoodies

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rush forward brandishing their weapons.

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I remember thinking, "This is it. But let it go down fighting."

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Trude instinctively puts her hands up to defend herself.

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And then I suddenly thought, try to get to the phone and do 999.

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The man shoves Trude backwards away from the phone

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and she smashes against a cigarette cabinet.

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I did actually have the phone in my hand and was going to dial

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when he pushed me and I did hurt myself

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but it didn't register really.

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The man hacks violently with the meat cleaver at the phone and cable.

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It looks like he's hacking me

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but he started with his meat clever to hit the telephone.

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And I do remember thinking, I wonder if it's going to be my head next?

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And the other chap in black kept saying, "Open the till."

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I kept saying, "You're making me nervous, I can't do it."

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They need Trude standing to open the till but they're so rough she falls.

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He pushed me again there.

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And when I was on the floor I pressed the panic button.

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The man who's dressed in black sees Trude press the panic button

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and it makes him start to panic.

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He wants to leave but the other man shouts at Trude to open the safe.

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He said to me, "Go and get to the safe."

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And I said, "You're in the way", to the chap in black.

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"You are in the way. I have to get passed you."

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And he said, "Run, she's pushed the alarm."

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And I said, "Yes, you'd better." I noticed he'd put the knife there.

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I picked up the knife. I thought, right, I'm going to defend myself.

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Trude chases after them with their own knife.

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I don't know what I would have done if he'd have turned round.

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I mean...we'd have a knife fight or whatever, I don't know.

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But all the men want to do is escape.

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Trude goes to the office to call the police.

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The robbers, flustered by her resistance

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and put off by the panic button,

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have only managed to steal the £50 float.

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I was so lucky.

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If he hadn't seen me press the alarm,

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I would have had to go in to show them the safe.

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The police are quickly on the scene.

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DI Dave Atkinson heads the investigating team.

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Officers were on scene within five or ten minutes.

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It was obvious to them this had been a very serious crime

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and further units were dispatched to the scene in order to

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look for evidence and look for the offenders.

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It was a priority we got them locked up as soon as possible.

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But how do you identify robbers whose faces are hidden

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behind balaclavas and hoodies?

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Well, with the help of a trained dog with a highly sensitive nose, that's how.

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Dave's team have a breakthrough within just 15 minutes.

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On the night in question, following the robbery, they've come out,

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they've initially gone right and then gone out of camera shot.

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However, ten minutes later when the dog unit arrived

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and he parked up here, the dog gets straight out

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and the dog tracks off on a very strong scent down that way round the corner.

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The dog keeps tracking for several hundred metres down the road

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and up a country lane.

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There's no street lights or anything so in November at 8.00pm,

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this would have been pitch black. That's when the dog becomes invaluable then

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because he's just relying on scent.

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The dog's trusty nose takes them to a hedge by an allotment.

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The dog led the dog handler to this point here and we found a pile of clothing

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which we believed to have belonged to the offenders

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because the dog has tracked from the scene to here.

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Then the dog finds another clue to the robbers' movements.

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Following the discovery of the clothing, the dog tracked

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a further 100 metres up to this area here where the track just stopped.

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This is the point where we believe they got into a vehicle and left the scene.

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And the next day, search teams find one more item.

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Just off the main road we found the meat cleaver hidden in a bush here.

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The evidence is bagged up and sent to a forensic lab

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to see if there are any traces of DNA.

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They hope it will reveal the identities.

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Later, we'll see detectives gather CCTV from different locations

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to piece together what happened on the night of the robbery.

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We had a name put forward as a potential suspect.

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They're closing in on the robbers.

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As well as dealing with serious crimes

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like the raid on Trude's shop,

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police time and technology also has to deal with

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the petty antics of fraudsters like this guy in a lift.

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This CCTV camera in the lift of an underground station

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is about to capture one of the worst attempts at a fake injury claim

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you're ever likely to see.

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This man enters.

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After punching in his floor then does a double take

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when he notices the security camera.

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Anyway, moments later he appears to have dropped something.

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What's that?

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Oh, it's a banana skin.

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Careful! You might slip!

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For the rest of the trip he stays resolutely looking ahead

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but can't resist a shifty glance at the camera

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to work out if it's working.

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Yes, we can see you!

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OK, here's your floor, mind yourself on the way out.

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Oh, oops.

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What bad luck, to land exactly on that banana skin.

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Oh, well, at least he got up pretty quickly.

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But incredibly, this man claimed for injuries to his left leg and hip

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and tried to get a five figure sum in compensation,

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saying a station attendant should have cleaned up the peel

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before he entered the lift.

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Unfortunately, not realising this footage had been recorded,

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he slipped up in more ways than one.

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After examining it, the police decide to charge him with fraud.

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Now, this bloke needs to get something off his chest

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because if you look closely you can see a cable hanging out

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the bottom of his T-shirt.

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He's hiding a laptop computer and it's not his.

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He's been on a crime spree stealing equipment from offices.

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We often get burglars say, "I don't do houses, I just do offices."

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Like that somehow morally justifies what they're doing.

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We don't see it like that. Burglary is never a victimless crime.

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Burglars who raid offices might think it's just faceless equipment

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they're stealing but Ros knows otherwise.

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He's affected my life, the life of my family

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and the charity that my husband and I run.

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He's hurt a lot of people.

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We'll see how in Leicester,

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Ros badly needs to get her stolen laptop back.

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And how in the City of London,

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police are clamping down on office burglars.

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Any time you're breaking into somewhere to steal,

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that is morally reprehensible and you need to be brought to justice.

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Ros Barnes runs a fashion design business in Leicester.

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One day recently she was working at her sewing machine

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unaware that a man had crept upstairs and into the studio office.

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I heard the door close and I thought, oh, that's rude.

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Somebody's not come in.

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They've gone out and they haven't even said hello,

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they've just gone out.

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I just saw a man disappearing down the corridor.

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I shouted to my friend, "Check and see if the handbag's still here.

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"She came back and said, "Oh, yes, the handbag's here."

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Then I looked in the office and the laptop had gone.

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Ros went looking for the man.

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See if I can just get that laptop back even if I have to say to him,

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"Look, follow me to the cashpoint, I will give you £50.

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"You give me the laptop back, let's call it a day." Take it no further.

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But he'd vanished.

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After reporting the theft to police,

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she checked her neighbour's CCTV recording.

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They have cameras that overlook the entrance.

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It shows the thief trying one door but it's locked,

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so he heads upstairs to Ross's studio.

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The enormity of what I lost just hit me as I was watching him

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walking out the door with it.

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Precious photos of Ros's son, Alex, are on the laptop.

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Seven years ago he fell ill with a life-threatening brain tumour

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and needed a new type of therapy in America.

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We raised £57,000 in three days

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through the generosity of the people of the East Midlands.

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When we were in the States he had his tumour taken out

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and then he started proton therapy and we were there for nearly four months.

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So, he's come back and he's never looked back.

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He's been absolutely perfect

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and he's cancer free after five years now.

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Ros and her husband set up a charity to help other families

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with children that need similar treatment.

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Information about the charity is also on the laptop.

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I'm extremely worried that I can not keep in touch with these families,

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I can not follow up with them what I've started.

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I can't finish what I've started.

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And that's the thing that's really hurting me.

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It's unlikely that thieves even consider the pain they might cause

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their victims but the police want to make sure they do.

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The City of London.

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Within its one square mile of high rise offices,

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laptop thefts are a common problem.

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It's an important commercial area.

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So important, since 1839 it's had its own crime fighting force,

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the City of London Police.

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We're the smallest territorial police force in the country.

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We're primarily an area that's dominated by big business

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and we're the European centre of finance.

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It also has one of the highest densities of CCTV cameras in the world.

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CCTV is massively critical to us.

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We try not to become dependant on it but it's such a useful tool.

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And those cameras proved crucial recently

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when Steve and his colleagues get reports of a spate of burglaries.

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This is the first footage of the thief at work.

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It shows how easy it is for him to get into a building.

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He simply loiters outside and waits for someone to enter or leave.

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The doors have slid open and you'll see him rush

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in order to wedge his foot into the closing glass doors.

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The mobile phone's always in the hand

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as if that's going to make him naturalise,

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make him look like he belongs.

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And the male reverses backwards through the door.

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The man goes up in a lift.

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A few minutes later he's leaving with a stolen laptop and a bin bag.

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That's so if he's challenged he can pretend he's a cleaner.

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This was the first offence in a series of offences.

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We could not identify him from this footage alone.

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But four days later, he's back.

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Only this time he actually forces a door open.

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His body's bracing as if he's pulling on the magnetically locked door.

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He manages to get in but he's been seen.

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A security guard has located him in the second floor,

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challenged him verbally, at which point this suspect has run away.

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The thief gets away

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but security staff have control of the cameras and they track him.

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This is where the CCTV work really comes into its own.

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This footage shows the front of that office space.

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You can see how it's zooming because the guard's looking for the suspect.

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And you can see a very, very clear facial shot,

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clearly in the same clothing as the previous offence.

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Also, when I let it run, you can see there's a white cable

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hanging out the bottom of his T-shirt

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and a suspicious rectangular item wedged up his T-shirt

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which is in fact the MacBook that was stolen from the premises.

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Security call the police

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but unfortunately the man escapes before they can get there.

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However, they've now got that close-up of his face.

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The face image is so clear it allowed us

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to make a good identification of the male.

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His name is Anthony Mannigan, well-known to the police

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and only just out of prison.

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He had to go to probation, which is a condition of his release

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from prison, that he has to attend certain appointments.

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We arrested him when he attended his probation appointment.

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With all the video evidence against him,

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he is found guilty of committing four burglaries

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and is given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence.

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Steve and his colleagues are pleased with the result.

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It takes him out of circulation.

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Some of the laptops he stole belong to personal victims

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who worked at the companies. To lose that is like the modern day handbag.

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You lose everything you own.

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So we're obviously very, very happy

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that he was put inside for that length of time.

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Back up in Leicester, Ros, who's lost precious photos

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when her laptop was stolen,

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still has hope that it might be returned to her.

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I'm hoping that when this person looks at the photographs

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they realise that actually this is the laptop they've heard about and seen on TV.

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That, er, it belongs to the family of a little boy who has really,

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really struggled and overcome cancer twice

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and he's got all his life documented on that PC.

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So, I'm hoping that the person that buys that laptop or gets given it,

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thinks, you know what, I don't really need it that much,

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let's get it back to the family.

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If anybody has information that might lead to the return

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of Ros's laptop, please contact Leicestershire Police.

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Computers can contain so much information about our lives

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and quite often it's valuable personal stuff that's irreplaceable.

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So what can we do to try and keep it safe?

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Back up your information if you possibly can regularly

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so you've got all your photographs and your personal information

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that you really treasure so it will still be there.

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So many of us have hooked up to different sites where we can

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purchase things with the click of a button.

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It's recognised by our computer.

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If you don't have a security password that thief can order things

0:19:260:19:30

online with all your credit card details.

0:19:300:19:32

You should take a note of the serial number,

0:19:320:19:35

visit your local police website

0:19:350:19:37

and it will show you how to register your laptop online.

0:19:370:19:42

Mark your laptop with a security pen, password protect it

0:19:420:19:46

and above all, lock it away.

0:19:460:19:48

Coming up:

0:19:540:19:56

Following the armed robbery at Trude's garage shop in Devon,

0:19:560:19:59

police get a lead after a public appeal for help.

0:19:590:20:02

The community rallied around and a name was given to us.

0:20:030:20:06

And they uncover more vital CCTV evidence.

0:20:060:20:10

Worthing.

0:20:190:20:20

It's 3.00am when these two men walk up the drive of a health spa,

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briefly glancing up at the camera and shielding themselves

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from the glare of the security light.

0:20:270:20:30

They're clearly up to no good.

0:20:300:20:32

At this hour they must be after something valuable, don't you think?

0:20:320:20:35

Well, let's just say it's a bit of a surprise

0:20:350:20:38

when one of the men comes back with a six foot inflatable banana.

0:20:380:20:43

Yes, a six foot inflatable banana!

0:20:430:20:46

Getting into the car, he then waits for his accomplice

0:20:460:20:49

who's also stealing a six foot inflatable banana.

0:20:490:20:53

But before they can, erm, split,

0:20:530:20:56

they seem to get delayed by the difficulty of trying to contain

0:20:560:20:59

two large inflatable bananas in the back of a small, three-door car.

0:20:590:21:04

But finally, they're off.

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Karen here had been using these inflatables as part of a promotion

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to reward people who cycle to her health spa with a free banana.

0:21:110:21:15

A bit deflated by the loss of her inflatables,

0:21:150:21:19

Karen put out a banana a-peel for information releasing this footage.

0:21:190:21:24

Tracking down the vehicle's number plate,

0:21:240:21:27

Sussex Police found the bananas at one of the men's houses.

0:21:270:21:31

He and the bananas were put in custard, sorry,

0:21:310:21:33

custody for a while before he got his just desserts!

0:21:330:21:37

A caution for theft.

0:21:370:21:39

While Karen was pumped up with pleasure at the thought

0:21:390:21:42

of getting her inflatables back.

0:21:420:21:44

Back to Knowle in North Devon

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and the violent robbery at the local garage shop.

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Detective Inspector Dave Atkinson,

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who's overseeing the police investigation,

0:22:010:22:04

reviews the footage of how shop manager, Trude, defended herself.

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Her reaction was to put her hands up to it and it was a miracle.

0:22:080:22:11

When we saw this footage for the first time,

0:22:110:22:14

we were astounded that she didn't have injuries because he was

0:22:140:22:18

waving the machete around, completely reckless to her safety at all.

0:22:180:22:23

Trude stood up to the armed men throughout the robbery

0:22:230:22:26

and even tried to call the police in front of them.

0:22:260:22:29

What we have here is the telephone that Trude was trying to

0:22:290:22:32

telephone the police on.

0:22:320:22:34

You can quite clearly see the damage that's been caused by the meat cleaver.

0:22:340:22:37

It was a frightening ordeal

0:22:370:22:39

but Trude was determined not to let it affect her too much.

0:22:390:22:43

She even decided to return to work the very next day.

0:22:430:22:47

Because I did not want them to spoil the rest of my life,

0:22:470:22:51

and I like life.

0:22:510:22:53

The detectives are closing in on the culprits.

0:22:540:22:57

They've already found their clothes and the meat cleaver

0:22:570:23:00

which had been sent to a forensic lab.

0:23:000:23:03

While they wait for the results, Dave, using the CCTV footage,

0:23:030:23:07

decides to appeal directly to the public for information.

0:23:070:23:11

I went to the local media and I asked for a name

0:23:110:23:14

because I said, my team would do the rest if we got a name.

0:23:140:23:19

The community rallied around and a name was given to us.

0:23:190:23:22

That name is Jamie Latta, a 27-year-old from Plymouth.

0:23:220:23:27

When the DNA results came back from the lab, his name pops up again.

0:23:270:23:32

They knew that Latta had worn one of the balaclavas.

0:23:320:23:36

The results also reveal two other people, a 24-year-old man

0:23:360:23:40

who lives locally called Lee Prowse, and his girlfriend.

0:23:400:23:44

The key element of the inquiry then was to prove

0:23:440:23:47

they associated with each other. And if so, where were they

0:23:470:23:50

immediately before the robbery and immediately after the robbery.

0:23:500:23:54

The three suspects are questioned

0:23:540:23:56

but they claim they barely know each other.

0:23:560:23:59

The investigators start to piece together where the suspects were

0:23:590:24:02

on the days around the robbery.

0:24:020:24:04

They do this by tracking their mobile phone signals.

0:24:040:24:08

It gives them more locations to trawl for CCTV evidence.

0:24:080:24:12

The police also go back to see Trude at the shop.

0:24:120:24:15

Maybe she'd noticed something unusual in the days before the robbery?

0:24:150:24:20

There was an incident the day before where I noticed

0:24:200:24:23

these two young men, we were quite busy, and they came in.

0:24:230:24:26

One of them said, "You do coffee. I'll have a coffee."

0:24:260:24:29

And then as he was paying for it, he said, "We just needed the water,

0:24:290:24:33

"we've got coffee in the car." There was a girl with them.

0:24:330:24:36

The new footage proves useful for Dave's team.

0:24:360:24:39

It was bingo, really, because we had Prowse, Latta

0:24:390:24:43

and the girlfriend all in the garage together.

0:24:430:24:46

The reason being, clearly, they want to see how Trude accesses the till,

0:24:460:24:49

whether there's an alarm system and how she goes about her business.

0:24:490:24:53

Then more important evidence is found.

0:24:540:24:57

CCTV pictures from a hotel taken on the evening of the robbery.

0:24:580:25:02

This element of it was quite important to actually show

0:25:020:25:05

they knew each other and they knew each other very, very well.

0:25:050:25:08

In fact, they stayed in the same room.

0:25:080:25:10

The guy with the shaved head is Latta.

0:25:100:25:12

He's a career criminal and quite a nasty piece of work.

0:25:120:25:15

He's got a string of violence convictions.

0:25:150:25:17

This chap here is Prowse.

0:25:180:25:21

Again, he's a career criminal but more petty crime

0:25:210:25:24

with a string of convictions for theft-related matters.

0:25:240:25:27

The girlfriend, her involvement in this was key

0:25:290:25:32

because she was the only one that had a car and therefore

0:25:320:25:35

she was driving them around in order to commit this robbery.

0:25:350:25:39

Her car is spotted at a petrol station in Braunton,

0:25:390:25:42

a few miles from Trude's shop

0:25:420:25:44

and just 20 minutes before the crime takes place.

0:25:440:25:48

And putting in the petrol is Prowse.

0:25:480:25:51

But the most compelling evidence actually comes from the police themselves.

0:25:510:25:54

Weeks before the crime, their CCTV camera at Barnstable police station

0:25:540:26:00

captures Latta walking in, and guess what?

0:26:000:26:04

He's wearing a familiar looking hoodie.

0:26:040:26:07

The most important exhibit that we recovered was the grey hoodie

0:26:070:26:12

which, with the three distinctive buttons which Latta was wearing,

0:26:120:26:17

which we were then able, through CCTV, to show him

0:26:170:26:19

coming into the police station wearing the same hoodie.

0:26:190:26:22

It puts Latta in the same clothes as the man with the meat cleaver.

0:26:240:26:29

The evidence is stacked against him.

0:26:290:26:32

The CCTV from the police station was the final piece in the jigsaw, if you like.

0:26:320:26:36

The gang are arrested.

0:26:380:26:40

In court, Latta pleads guilty and is sentenced to six years in prison.

0:26:430:26:47

Prowse tries to fight his case but he is also found guilty

0:26:500:26:54

and jailed for seven years.

0:26:540:26:56

His girlfriend is given a four year sentence.

0:26:590:27:02

It's a pleasing result for Dave's team

0:27:040:27:06

who put together such a convincing case.

0:27:060:27:09

These three people have gone into this garage the day before,

0:27:090:27:12

they know that Trude is in there by herself.

0:27:120:27:15

She's a 65-year-old grandmother.

0:27:150:27:17

The following day when they go in there waving their meat cleavers around with balaclavas,

0:27:170:27:21

they knew who was going to be in there.

0:27:210:27:24

Particularly callous, particularly heartless.

0:27:240:27:27

They did not know what my reaction would be.

0:27:270:27:30

They could have made me a nervous wreck.

0:27:300:27:32

That is, I think, is worse than taking away money.

0:27:320:27:36

I think we'll all sleep a lot better the fact they're going to be behind bars for some time.

0:27:360:27:40

Oh, I was very relieved.

0:27:400:27:42

I still don't know how the police did it, I really don't.

0:27:420:27:45

Since the night Trude stood up to the robbers,

0:27:490:27:52

friends and locals have shown a lot of support for her

0:27:520:27:55

and she's also been awarded £500 by the judge for her bravery.

0:27:550:28:00

I had so many flowers and cards, and hugs and chocolates.

0:28:000:28:04

One of my little customers goes to the same school as my grandchildren

0:28:040:28:08

in Braunton.

0:28:080:28:10

A couple of days afterwards he came up to me and said,

0:28:100:28:14

"Thank you for chasing away the robbers."

0:28:140:28:16

That's it for today.

0:28:230:28:24

Join us next time when the police and the public

0:28:240:28:26

catch more criminals red handed.

0:28:260:28:29

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