Episode 18 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 antisocial behaviour,

police and other agencies are using new technology and tactics,

and the bad guys are actually getting caught in the act.

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

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

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

And the general public, too, can help unsuspecting crooks

-get their comeuppance.

-No way are you getting away!

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

We'll name and shame you.

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

They might just get caught red-handed.

Today, he's the scourge of the city's shops.

One-man crime wave, I think they call it.

Preston's most wanted and most photographed.

Also today...he takes money from the mountain rescue teams.

It's just despicable that someone can resort that low to do that.

But the Lake District community combines to catch him.

And a prolific bike thief.

Three bikes nicked on the same day, but it's not what you think.

This man is WHEELIE hoping to get caught!

Meet Thomas Green, he's in a newsagent's here

but he likes to visit all sorts of shops.

This is him in a phone store,

an Italian restaurant,

another newsagent's,

an electrical store,

and a fast food chain.

He's not a shopaholic but he does have a very bad habit - burglary.

One-man crime wave, I think they call it.

Thomas Green is one of the most prolific

and brazen burglars that Preston, Lancashire, has ever seen.

Thomas Green quickly became Preston's most wanted.

And the most unwanted by shopkeepers.

But with help from their cameras,

he's leaving a trail for the police to follow.

As in all towns and cities,

the retail trade in Preston is a driving force for the local economy.

But over a few short weeks,

Preston's shops and businesses are suddenly

put under strain with multiple burglaries in quick succession.

Burglaries in the city centre are few and far between.

The same pattern began to emerge.

Two offences on one particular day - money or electrical items.

To start with, the amount stolen had been fairly small.

But that's about to change.

Aaron runs this pawnbroker store.

One morning he has to rush in first thing after a break-in.

From the outside, you couldn't really tell,

but when we got in, it was a mess.

A burglar has waltzed off with thousands of pounds' worth

of stock, using a rather elaborate entry method.

He's climbed up this drainpipe, along onto the top of our sign,

he's then shimmied along,

and he's gone through that, what's a smashed window now,

we've boarded it up now.

He's got inside, walked along to the front of the building.

He's then gone across to the far end of the building.

He's smashed a hole in the ceiling which is about two, three feet

above the ceiling tiles.

He's then kicked the ceiling tiles through and climbed down the shelves.

He's in then, he's gone for the mobile phones in the window,

got the cash in the till.

He's definitely planned it because he's known exactly where he's going.

But this shop, that sells high-tech stock, has high-tech security

cameras too. Aaron checks the CCTV footage and sees the intruder.

Here he comes out of the back room,

carrying one of the shop's own boxes.

He intends to fill it up with loot.

This is him now, not a care in the world.

There's an alarm blasting out in the streets, it's blasting

in the shop, and it's pitch dark.

You'd have thought he'd look a bit more scared than that,

but whilst all that's going on he's just blase, picking up

phones and carrying on like he's done this many times before.

Although the intruder's entry was inventive,

his exit is, hm, slightly less so(!)

Clambering up the shelves, he accidentally pulls more

ceiling tiles down, and then he realises his box of stolen

goodies is too big to get through the hole he's made in the ceiling.

He's dropped the box inside the ceiling tiles of our window display,

then he's climbed back through with whatever he's got

stuffed in his pockets.

There were a few handsets dotted around upstairs as well,

that we ended up recovering, thankfully.

Despite the transformation from cat burglar to bull in a china shop,

the man still manages to get away with £4,500 worth

of mobile phones and tablets, badly affecting the business.

With the items that were stolen,

including all the repairs and the damage and the staff...

the cost is probably just short of about £6,000.

And, you know, in this economic climate,

being a small business, that's hard to bear, that.

That's quite a lot of loss, there.

The case falls on the desk of Detective Constable Warren Gibson

and when he sees the footage,

he immediately knows who he is looking at.

Straight away. Straight away, immediately recognised him

as Thomas Green.

A career criminal, Thomas Green has only just been released from prison.

He's having to steal money to fund his daily living

and what other habits he might have.

Warren looks into the other incidents

that have been recently reported,

seven of which have occurred in just the last four days.

Where possible, he studies CCTV footage from the raided premises

and you can guess who he finds to be the culprit.

Here in this newsagent's,

Green wastes no time nicking some cash.

He walks straight up to the unattended counter,

he reaches for a plastic wallet with money in it

and strides back out.

Here, he's creeping around the back rooms

of an Italian restaurant.

It's 9:30am and staff are in the building, preparing for lunch.

This doesn't seem to deter Green, though.

He spends a couple of minutes grabbing what he can,

including cash from their tips jar.

The offences seem to happen two offences per day.

The impact is financial to the businesses of Preston

so it's imperative that we locate him.

Warren launches an operation to find Green.

He has no fixed address

so they try everywhere he might plausibly be living.

As the investigation digs deeper, things begin to become uncomfortable

for Green's associates and relatives, too.

But as the heat's turned up,

the trail goes cold.

Green has pocketed so much from his robbery at Aaron's pawnbroker's,

he's been able to move out of the area for a while.

But there's only a few weeks of respite

for the businesses of Preston.

That offending restarted three weeks later.

And again, the same pattern began to emerge -

two offences on one particular day.

Green is back big time,

and he's followed by an unknown accomplice.

Here we see them at a city centre grocer's.

They'd been in the shop earlier on in the day

asking for a quantity of beans

but they were told to come back in the afternoon.

The shopkeeper goes to the storeroom

to fetch the newly-delivered crate of beans.

After checking out the till,

Green gives his mate a signal

and the man slams the storeroom door shut on the shopkeeper,

trapping him inside.

Green opens the till, grabs a bundle of notes

and the pair leg it.

Well, it's despicable.

I mean, it's a cowardly attack -

two lads on one small shopkeeper.

It took him some time to get over that incident

where he was bundled into that storeroom.

Green's campaign of crime is back on.

The next day,

he steals lottery cards and money from this newsagent's.

And then soon after, at this fast food restaurant,

he even has the barefaced cheek to sneak into the back room

and rifle through the staff's belongings

while they serve outside.

He's stolen two very expensive mobile phones,

causing a great loss to the two ladies.

Personal data, photographs,

those occasions which don't get repeated -

birthdays, anniversaries, etc.

They'll never see them again.

The police search intensifies.

Thomas Green quickly became Preston's most wanted.

The heat was turned up a little bit.

Friends and family were spoken to.

We visited over 25 addresses

looking for him and conducting searches.

The extra attention means that Green switches back from daylight robbery

to the cover of night,

such as this break-in at a TV workshop.

But it will be his last.

The wealth of CCTV evidence is overwhelming,

and Green's cocky crime capers are about to come to an end.

Although he tries to stay on the run,

the police track him down.

I drove onto an estate and a particular street

with a colleague of mine, in a plain vehicle,

and we saw Mr Green on a settee, inside the property.

They call in other officers and arrest him.

Upon arrest, he assaulted three police officers

by spitting at them.

And we all saw and managed to locate

a considerable amount of drugs on his person.

He's stolen around £22,000 in total.

And with all this CCTV footage of his prolific pilfering,

Thomas Green is convicted of 12 separate offences.

He is jailed for two years and eight months.

We've got a very nasty individual off the streets, in custody.

This type of offence can't be tolerated.

These people who think they can get away with it, can't.

And the people of Preston, such as Aaron,

are certainly glad he is now behind bars.

When I heard that Green had been arrested,

it was brilliant. Made my day!

Cos the amount of inconvenience and loss that we'd suffered because of him...

it was great to hear that he'd been captured eventually.

It put it to an end so no-one else had to suffer.

Coming up, he may be dressed in a vest like Bruce Willis in a movie,

but this is a home movie

and it's not his home.

Yet this action man's performance is being covered from every angle.

And take a look at this bike thief.

It's not what you think.

Why are police officers stealing bikes in Cambridge?

It's 2:30 in the morning in York,

and these young men are on their way back from a night out in town

when one of them seems to take a strong exception

to these wheelie bins.

Maybe he's a frustrated dustman,

or thinks the recycling hasn't been done properly.

But, whatever the reason, this daft lad

runs over to pull over some more bins.

His mates think, "Well, this looks like fun!"

and join him in the rampage up the street.

They obviously think they can get away with such trashy behaviour,

but this bunch have got another think coming.

A council CCTV operator is watching all of this happen.

He's radioed the police, and these litter louts

are about to be caught in the act by a couple of police officers

coming round the corner in a van.

Just try blaming it on foxes now!

Despite the lads adopting a "Who, sir? Me, sir?" attitude,

the officers know exactly who's responsible for all this mess.

They give them a stern talking-to.

But that's not all.

They come up with a fitting instant punishment -

telling the lads that, if they clean up,

then there will be no further action.

It's an offer they can't, er, "refuse".

Under the watchful eye of the officers,

the young men painstakingly work their way back down the street,

leaving no bin unturned.

It's just what they deserve, a rubbish end to their evening.

There are givers and takers in this world, but, unfortunately,

some people want to take again and again what others have given them.

We're in the Lake District, Cumbria.

This footage of a man in a hat is being replayed

on a CCTV screen in a pub.

The landlord of the pub is filming it with his smartphone,

so that he can post the clip on the internet.

I actually thought it would be a good idea

to put the video onto social media

to see if we could get anyone to recognise him.

There has been a spate of charity collection boxes going missing

all over Cumbria, and this man in the hat

is showing an unhealthy interest in a Mountain Rescue donation box

on the bar.

It's quite despicable that somebody can resort that low to do that.

He takes the money generous donors have given to help save lives,

but because of this CCTV, the community join forces to catch him.

His luck might finally be running out.

The Lake District National Park attracts large numbers

of fell walkers and climbers to its picturesque scenery

and rugged terrain.

Near Kendal, the Watermill Inn,

a winner of the Tourism Pub of the Year award,

is a popular place to stop off for a pie and a pint.

Brian Coulthwaite has run the pub for 25 years.

The Watermill is very important to us and our family.

We bought the place as a guesthouse and turned it into a pub.

It's our home, we've built it up from nothing

and we're still building it up now.

Many of Brian's customers come to the Lake District

to do some serious hiking in the mountains,

and if one is ever unfortunate enough to have an accident,

the nearby Mountain Rescue teams are on hand to save them.

We've had a Mountain Rescue charity box since we opened as a pub.

It's a vital service, because they don't get paid from the government,

the Mountain Rescue, so they rely on people donating money.

The rescuers need the money to pay for essential equipment.

Without it, they couldn't run an efficient service

and that could have fatal consequences.

People will certainly perish - certainly in the Lake District

there's 300 or more call-outs a year

and without that funding, there would be no help available.

So Brian's customers are happy to make their donations

in the knowledge that it goes to a good cause.

The bar where the collection box sits is watched over

by one of the pub's CCTV cameras.

The CCTV was originally installed just for our own benefit -

if we were working in the back office,

we could actually see how busy the pub was

and if the bar staff needed a hand, we could nip in and clear the queue.

But the cameras can also help with security, as they did one day

when Brian got what up here they call "the collywobbles" -

an uneasy feeling that something's wrong.

We were chatting to one of the locals -

he went to put some money in the box and said,

"Where's the Mountain Rescue box?"

They mount a search and rescue operation of their own

to find the collection box.

But to no avail. So Brian goes to check his CCTV recordings.

We rewound the CCTV, and then fast-forwarded it

until it disappeared off the bar at about lunchtime.

A closer look reveals what happened to the box.

A man has entered the bar and is waiting for a coffee he's ordered.

He's dressed like he's been walking in the hills,

with a pair of binoculars hanging from his neck.

He just looked like he'd been out birdwatching or walking.

What the man REALLY has his eyes on is the Mountain Rescue charity box.

He adjusts his coat, takes a shifty look about,

then makes a very uncharitable grab for the box

and holds it under his arm.

He did it in such a natural fashion that no-one actually saw him doing it.

But the CCTV did.

Fortunately the camera's right there

so we've got an excellent picture of his face.

Brian comes up with a quick way

to get others to look out for that face.

After I had called the police and reported the incident,

I actually put the video onto social media

to see if we could get anyone to sort of recognise him,

and within three days it had over 11,000 hits.

The footage spreads rapidly

among homes and businesses in the Lake District.

I think the fact we've had over 11,000 hits

was because people were actually disgusted

that someone should take money that people have donated to a good cause.

Amongst the thousands of people who have seen Brian's video

is the manager of the Queens Hotel in nearby Ambleside.

And one day, a man with a familiar face appears in his bar.

Though the man is wearing a different hat,

the manager is convinced it's the charity box thief.

He doesn't tell any of the staff,

because he wants everyone to behave normally -

but watches closely to see what happens.

And yes, the man in the hat steals the charity box.

But as he tries to leave, the manager walks up behind him

and says, "I have witnessed you stealing our charity tin.

"The police are on their way, please have a seat."

The thief doesn't argue. He accepts his fate in a polite manner.

But in court, the judge describes the manner of his crimes

as about as mean as it gets.

He's 55-year-old Derrick Matthews.

He's been stealing charity collection boxes

from all over Cumbria and the Midlands.

He receives a five-year prison sentence.

And now all the money donated by generous people

will get to the charities it's meant for, like the Mountain Rescue teams.

The social media's certainly done a great favour in this case,

it's obviously led to the capture of Derrick Matthews

and is a good result in the end.

And Brian's full of praise for the actions of his fellow publican.

I think the fact that the chap from Ambleside

actually recognised the chap and kept an eye on him in the pub

and then seeing him take something there and doing a citizen's arrest,

was brilliant, because more people need to do things like that.

Get on your bike!

That was once a rallying cry for people to get up

and try new opportunities.

Which is all very well and good, as long as it's your own bike!

Bike theft is a big problem.

In the UK, an estimated half a million bikes are stolen each year.

And the police in Manchester and Cambridge

have been trying two very different tactics to tackle the problem.

This is Manchester city centre. A man is stealing a bike

and, as visible proof of how rife bike theft is,

just two hours later on the same day, at the same stand,

there's a different thief, stealing a different bike.

It's daylight robbery in full view of passers-by,

but these thieves are about to find out

that they've been caught in a hidden trap,

because these are police bait bikes.

Undercover officers have been watching

and swoop in to make arrests.

Both these men get jailed.

It sends out a clear message to other would-be bike thieves

in the city - don't try your luck!

Over in Cambridge, police also want to send out

a message about bike theft,

but they're using another very different approach.

In these pictures, it's the police who are nicking the bikes.

He looks like another thief caught on camera, but the man in a hat

next to the letter box is actually Police Constable Mark Mossop.

He's hoping someone will try to stop him taking a bike

and will call the police.

I knew the man was just looking at me, and I don't mind admitting

at that point, I'm getting very nervous.

This police unit are trying something new, because Cambridge is

the country's cycling capital, and more bikes means more bike thefts.

In an average year we could see 2,500 bikes just

taken from Cambridge city alone.

In a typical month, it could be up to 200 bikes.

It's a big problem for Cambridge

and a problem we're determined to tackle.

Sergeant Andrea Gilbert sees distressed cyclists every day.

Taking somebody's bike is very upsetting to them.

These bikes are worth hundreds of pounds, thousands of pounds,

or it might just be sentimental value to somebody.

If you don't think bikes can have such personal value,

you should meet Geoffrey Williams.

When he was 14, he bought a bike and fell so much in love with it,

he nicknamed it - sorry, her - Celia.

It was a bit different, a bit special cos it was hand-built.

The main thing is it rode terrifically well.

And for over 40 years, they've wandered hand-in-handlebar

through almost every country in Europe and even across the Sahara.

In all, over a hundred thousand miles on the saddle of Celia.

Certainly, if my bottom could talk it would probably be double that.

After they both survive a couple of crashes, Geoffrey decides he and

Celia are getting a bit old for this sort of thing, and they settle down.

After that, it just became a normal mode of transport

and so it continued until one day I got up and she'd gone.

Celia survived the Sahara only to be swiped in suburbia -

from Geoffrey's back garden.

I was actually devastated by it,

because when you're cycling along on something like Celia,

and you have done all your life, you have a little chat to her.

When you're going up a hill slowly you sort of say,

"Come on, Celia, get a move on!"

You're just blaming the bike rather than yourself of course.

The thieves would have no idea what they were taking.

To me, of course, it was priceless.

OK, not every cyclist has such a strong bond

with their bike as Geoffrey, but in Cambridge,

police are determined to reduce the number of people

who are affected by this particular type of theft.

We spent three months really focusing on cycle crime,

and doing a lot of patrols and a lot of prevention work

and trying to get this message across to people.

They want the public to be a bit more bothered about their bikes,

and other people's,

so they decide to make a video to bring the message home.

We wanted to create a film to show people how potentially

easy it is to steal a bike but how under-reported it is also.

So, PC Mark gets his first major film part, playing a bicycle thief.

They want to film people trying to stop Mark stealing the bike,

but this movie doesn't seem to be wowing the audience.

I'm trying to act as suspiciously as possible,

making it blatantly obvious.

I'll just pick the bike up, cos the rear wheel is fixed to the lock.

I didn't feel like I was being watched at all on this occasion.

Forget the soft-pedal approach - zap up the action level.

You can see that I just tear the bike away from the lamppost.

People walking towards me at the time, and I rode away on it.

Again, nothing doing - the crowd's hardly going wild for this film.

So, at the third location, Mark moves up a gear.

Surely his performance will get noticed here.

By this guy in the white T-shirt, maybe.

So I'm down trying to cut into the bike

and this is the closest we've come all day to being verbally challenged.

I knew the man was just looking at me.

I'm getting very nervous

because I'm going to be involved in some sort of confrontation.

But Mr Mobile here isn't interested in being a have-a-go hero.

So, bring out the bright orange bolt croppers.

Come on, react!

But no, Mark snips the chain and rides off right under his nose.

He didn't phone the police, he didn't make any challenge.

In fact, hang on, what he does do is park his bike in the space

left by the one Mark stole.

But the wheel of misfortune is about to strike this chap's own

set of wheels.

Mark and the others have gone home,

but the CCTV camera carries on recording.

About ten minutes after this had occurred,

his bike was stolen by a real thief.

Oh, dear.

It all goes to prove the point that

Mark and Andrea's film is trying to make.

And I'm sure he's thinking, "If only someone had seen someone steal

"my bike and rang it into the police,

"I might have got my bike back."

Along with increased patrols and other police work, their film's

publicity helps put the brakes on the bike thieves of Cambridge.

The operation was ran over three months and it was really successful.

We saw a reduction in cycle theft by 23%.

That is, 169 fewer victims had their bike stolen over that period.

The professionals have some good advice about how we can

keep our bikes safe.

What we recommend is that you invest good money in a good lock

to secure your bike.

It's recommended to use two locks, one of them being a D-lock.

And attach the actual bike to something sturdy.

Take a note of the serial number of the bike,

so if it does get stolen then the police have got

a chance of recovering it and getting your property back.

Next, it's like the Big Brother house. Fed up after being burgled,

a homeowner fixes hidden cameras in nearly every room,

and it's not long before an uninvited house guest comes along to

put on a good show for the cameras.

A sunny day in Ipswich, captured by this home CCTV system.

But it's about to capture a whole lot more.

This man walks past, apparently chatting on his mobile.

30 seconds later, he walks back on the other side of the road.

Maybe he's lost?

No. Actually, he's casing the joint.

Ten minutes after that, he can be seen sneaking across the back

garden, looking for a way in.

And he finds it - an unsecured conservatory door.

Mindful of the kitchen's shiny floor, he has taken his shoes off

and covered his feet so that he doesn't leave a footprint.

He's also got gloves on his hands to avoid fingerprints.

He does a quick recce of the place, looking for stuff to steal -

from the kitchen to the bedroom.

Oi, you! No jumping on the bed!

After a bit more searching, he then scurries outside,

fetches his rucksack so that he can fill it with goodies,

including a games console, a mobile phone and...some perfume.

But his day is not going to end with a sweet smell of success.

He may think he's being clever, covering his tracks,

his footprints and fingerprints.

What he hasn't counted on is the multitude of cameras

that have been covering him.

The homeowner had them installed

just in case he ever had another break-in.

Later, a police officer recognised this 21-year-old

from previous dealings with him.

Joshua Smith is arrested and charged.

He pleaded guilty to burglary.

He didn't have much choice, really.

And with other offences taken into consideration,

he was sentenced to 32 months in jail.

If only he'd known.

He should have carried on walking

and never entered this Big Brother house.

That's it for today.

Join us next time,

when the police and the public catch more criminals red-handed.