Episode 15 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 tactics

and technology where the bad guys get caught in the act.

Brilliant footage. Police officers love CCTV.

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

As soon as he walked into the picture, I knew who he was.

And the general public, too, can help unsuspecting crooks

get their comeuppance.

-We definitely needed proof.

-You're not going to get away with it,

-you might as well pack up.

-It made me swallow with pride. It was brilliant.

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

They might just get Caught Red-Handed.

Today, a village shop assistant suffers a terrifying ordeal

when she's threatened by a robber with an axe.

But will the golden axe prove to be his downfall?

Bigger features, tarnished areas...

I thought, I should be able to see this.

..and a hidden camera in a grandad's room reveals a sinister secret.

All is not as it should be.

..and everything in the garden's not lovely.

These women aren't so much green fingered,

as just plain light fingered.

The village of Brompton in North Yorkshire.

This is the local newsagents.

Inside, the CCTV cameras are rolling.

It's just after 4pm.

Moments ago, the shop was bustling with school kids buying sweets.

Most customers have left

when a man enters and waits ominously at the back.

But he's no customer, he's carrying an axe

and what happens next is truly shocking.

The armed robber demands money from the till.

Suddenly, after a quiet afternoon, shop assistant Christine

is now facing real danger.

When he was above me with the axe, I was terrified.

And she was, like, erm... "He had a hood up, he had his face covered..."

and then she popped up the, "Oh, and he had an axe. He had an axe."

-You know?

-The attack even leaves the police in shock.

For this to happen in the village shop -

somebody to come in, hold an axe above her head, it was awful.

The pretty village of Brompton in North Yorkshire.

Opposite the church, the corner store is at the heart of the community.

It seemed like an idyllic location when Jackie and her husband Manjit

were looking for a more rural business for their family.

I was taking the children swimming one day

and me and Manjit had been looking for a shop for a couple of years.

We just drove back this way and straightaway I said to him,

"Oh, look. There's a nice shop..." I said, "..in a little village."

All the people seemed very friendly. It was like a community village.

So, we thought, yeah, it's an ideal location.

There's 90% of people who live in the village come in this shop.

Really nice people.

We've worked very hard to get it where it is.

Obviously, the customers, as well, supporting us.

But Manjit's up at four o'clock, he comes to work.

Christine also loves coming to work.

She's been serving behind the counter for over three years.

'£21.45.'

Well, I just do 12 hours a week, usually.

I get to meet a lot of different people and hear different things.

Today, Christine's manning the store on her own,

while Manjit is banking the day's takings 16 miles away in Darlington.

I came to work for four o'clock

and it was all, er... just women and children

and pushchairs and prams.

But as the rush-hour ends, the CCTV camera outside the front of the shop

catches a man in dark clothing approaching the store.

Yeah, it was about 4:25 when he came in.

I did notice him, I didn't want to think the worst, really.

I just thought, "Oh, maybe he's been to the dentist?"

because he had his storm flap up on his coat and his hood up.

Christine is busy at the till, serving a woman and a young boy.

I served this lady and it was on the tip of my tongue to say,

"Oh, do you think he's a bit strange at the back?" But I didn't say it.

After they leave, the hooded man rushes forward.

Then, there was nobody in and he came to the counter,

shoved this bag at me...

"Fill it with the money," he said, I think. And I said, "No."

But with a six-foot man wielding an axe

and shouting and swearing at her, Christine quickly changes her mind.

So, I just let him have the money.

I felt like a rabbit in the headlights of a car.

I was, sort of, totally startled and stunned.

The violent robber flees with just £250.

Christine is in total shock.

I had a mini-meltdown and I phoned Jackie first.

I couldn't believe that it was Christine. I was like, "Hi, Christine."

And she was like, "Erm...somebody's just taken some money out the till,

"they've just robbed out of the till."

And I was like, "Who? Come on, Christine. Tell me a little bit more."

And she was like, "He had a hood up, he had his face covered..."

and then she popped up the, "Oh, and he had an axe. He had an axe."

So, then I knew. I was like, "OK, right. Stay there, lock the door."

Having locked the door, to prevent the robber's return,

Christine dials 999.

I phoned the police and they kept me on the phone until they turned up.

Meanwhile, Jackie phones Manjit, who's still at the bank.

I got a phone call off me wife saying we've been robbed. I said, "We've been robbed?"

I couldn't believe it, I said, "Are you sure?" She went, "Yeah, we've been robbed."

And I came out of the bank, went to my van and came back to the village.

The violent nature of the robbery described to the police

in Christine's call triggers a high level of response.

DC Donna Anderson is in charge of the case.

Lots of units were sent. There was CID was sent,

there was armed response, there was local officers,

there would be PCSOs.

So, the area that was basically flooded with officers erm...

trying to catch anyone who's making their way from the shop.

Jackie rushes back to find the shop swarming with police.

Her main concern is Christine.

There was a police officer outside the shop.

It was quite scary, actually.

I'm trying to look in to see if Christine's all right,

to see if somebody's given her a cup of tea.

Even with the scale of police activity,

it begins to look like the robber had got away.

They didn't find anybody going up the road,

they didn't find anybody in the vicinity of the shop

but there was a lot of witnesses who came forward

with loads of names of people.

There was a lot of activity,

but unfortunately, that night, there was nothing to link anybody to this crime.

It shocked me, it scared me.

I thought to myself straight away, for the first two days,

"Oh, Manjit. I don't want the shop no more, I don't want it."

DC Anderson has a suspect, but she'll need specialist forensic help

if she's going to put this dangerous criminals behind bars.

So, the rucksack has a distinctive stain.

So, that's what I was looking for when I went back to the CCTV.

I got, kind of, a, you know, a eureka, kind of, moment.

Also coming up...

A grandad's has been saving up to treat his family,

but he's callously robbed by someone who's being paid to help him.

It wasn't about the money, it's about the trust.

But the family set a trap.

Skelmersdale in Lancashire.

It's 5am and who's this tiptoeing down the road?

Surely it's a bit early for a spot of gardening?

But these two women have a plot in mind. It's a garden plot.

Trouble is, it's not their garden.

They're about to steal somebody's freshly-laid lawn.

While one of them rolls it up like a carpet,

the other one shifts it down the road to an unknown destination.

But a neighbour's CCTV camera captures these two coming and going

over the course of the next hour.

And when the footage of these two lawbreakers,

or should that be LAWN BREAKERS, was posted on the internet,

it sowed the seeds of their downfall.

But this turf war was over when one of the women was picked up

and identified by police.

She was found guilty of theft and sentenced to three months in prison,

though she refused to grass up her accomplice, who's still at large.

So, watch out for anyone digging up your garden at dawn.

They may well answer to the name LAWNA or perhaps even MOW.

There are almost 7,000,000 hard-working carers in the UK today.

But there's a small percentage who abuse their position of trust.

Middlesbrough, Cleveland.

It's a particularly mean and thoughtless crime

to steal hard-saved cash from a pensioner.

We were talking with Dad one day

about the next time we go out for a meal.

We joked with him that he would have enough money by now

to take us all out together.

And he looked a bit puzzled, he said, "I don't think I can, really.

"I don't think I've got enough money to do that."

Although he seemed happily settled in his new care home,

in fact, things are far from settled.

This young woman sees to that,

until Pat's family sets up a secret camera.

She walks towards the wardrobe and we can hear her on a louder volume

just whispering to herself, "Where have you hidden it?"

But then the camera switched off.

Pat and Joan were happily married for nearly 60 years

and, after having a large family, were enjoying retirement.

Mum was the love of his life.

They met when, I think, Dad must have been 17 and Mum 15.

Mum was just finishing school

and Dad had started his apprenticeship

as a painter and decorator. He hated it.

But he was painting school railings where Mum was at school

and I guess they were never apart since.

He loved his family, nine grandchildren,

seven great-grandchildren, they were the apples of his eye.

Having a large family appeared to keep Pat young,

but he suffered for a long time with ill health.

Fortunately, wife Joan was in charge of his strict medical regime.

But everything changed when Joan passed away,

leaving daughter Christine and daughter-in-law Susan to look after their dad.

It wasn't until Mum was gone, that we actually realised

how much she'd done for Dad.

It was a case of, we understood Pat needed more care

than we could actually give him.

So, we sat as a family, it was a very, very hard decision.

To get the attention he needed,

the family helped Pat move into a care home and he adjusted well.

But everything changes when Christine discovers by chance

that there's something strange going on.

Every week, Pat draws £30 out from his pension for his spending money.

He liked to give the grandchildren some pocket money,

he liked to pay for his daily paper

and he liked to take the family out for a meal for special occasions

and that's what he saved his pocket money for, really.

Anything left over, he keeps in a safe in his wardrobe.

January time and he wanted to take the family for a meal,

because this was one of Pat's things he enjoyed doing...

We joked with him that, "Oh, he would have enough money by now

"to take us all out together."

But he voiced a concern that there wasn't enough money.

So, I asked him to have a look and let me see what was in his safe.

And we thought there should be around about £200, by then.

And when he showed me what was in his safe, there was only about £40 there.

And if there's money missing, the only possible explanation

is that someone is taking it.

So, we decided to sit down as a family

and see what we could come up with.

I mean, obviously, we've never done anything like this before.

And my brothers immediately wanted to put a camera in the room.

But Christine is unsure about this idea at first

and decides to run it by the manager of the home.

She said, "Well, yeah.

"I need to find out what's going on,

"I need to be able to trust my staff.

"So, we need to find out where this money's going.

"So, get a camera and put it in place."

After doing her research on the internet,

Christine buys a spy camera in the shape of an alarm clock.

She installs it in her dad's room on top of a chest of drawers.

Dad didn't like the clock, but he knew what it was doing.

So he, kind of, put up with it.

Christine leaves the camera in motion sensor mode,

which means it records when there's any movement in the room,

but only for two minutes.

She checks the footage every day.

It was about a week to ten days before we actually caught anything

that was suspicious.

Everything else, all of the care was exemplary.

But the good care Pat is receiving is about to be spoilt

when late one evening, he leaves his room to see Christine's brother out

after a visit.

Seconds after he'd left the room,

this person was in there and rummaging, really.

Just off-camera, the woman looks through his drawers.

I'd say roughly about 20, 30 seconds she's looking for something.

She leaves.

But a couple of hours later, she's back looking around again.

Again, looking through drawers and things.

Pat has a little basket on his table where he keeps all his knick-knacks.

She goes into the basket and rummages into there.

The family suspects she's looking for the key to the safe,

which Pat hides in different places.

Today, it's in the wardrobe.

She walks towards the wardrobe

and we can hear her on a louder volume

just whispering to herself, "Where have you hidden it?"

But then the camera switched off.

The family now know that something's amiss.

I felt quite sick, really. Realising that, you know, this is happening

and it is one of the carers

and she was one of Dad's favourites,

because she used to sing really loudly.

But before they can make any accusations about anyone,

they need proof.

Christine picks a day when she knows her dad will be out

and the carer they suspect will be on shift.

Dad was actually coming to my house on the anniversary of Mum's death

so we could have a family meal together.

The night before, Christine photographs all the serial numbers

of the money in her dad's safe.

Then, it's down to her brother and his wife Susan to complete the plan,

when they come to fetch their dad in the morning.

I place the safe keys in his normal drawer and set the camera off.

This time, the camera is switched to record continuously

everything that happens.

My sister-in-law brought Dad to my house, we had a nice afternoon,

but then he was tired and wanted to go home.

When they get back to the home, Susan checks the drawer.

I noticed the keys had been moved.

So, I told my husband, passed him the keys,

he opened the safe and we found £40 had gone missing.

After saying goodbye to Pat, they head back to Christine's

with the camera footage.

And that's when we found that we'd kind of caught the girl red-handed.

The carer enters Pat's room and goes straight to the wardrobe.

She can't find the key.

She checks the pot on the table, then the drawer,

she finds it. Back to the wardrobe to open the safe.

She takes out a bundle of cash,

steals £40 and puts the rest back.

After replacing the key where she found it, she leaves.

We all felt physically sick, really.

There it was, couldn't deny it.

We phoned the manager, said "We've got something to show you

"that you're going to be interested in," and we went up,

showed it to the manager and she immediately called the police.

Police officers arrive and, even though the carer's told

about the video evidence, she denies everything.

She is arrested.

She said, "Will I need to follow you to the police station?"

"No, you're going in the van."

And she jumped up - "You've got to be joking?

"Everybody in here will see me going into a police van."

Christine lets her dad know who's been stealing his money.

We've never seen Dad angry ever in our lives,

but he got angry because he didn't know how to cope

with the emotions that suddenly, he was feeling.

It wasn't about the money, it's about the trust.

In court, the carer is sentenced to 18 weeks in prison,

suspended for two years.

She's also given a 12-month supervision requirement

and is ordered to pay £850 in costs.

The family are pleased the carer's been stopped.

She will now NOT be able to work in that environment again.

And so, in that instance, it's put a stop to that happening again.

Sadly, four months later, Pat passed away

two days after celebrating his 80th birthday.

In his coffin, he has Mum's ashes with him, with his arms around them.

So, they're together again and that gives us some comfort.

The family were able to take some comfort from the footage

recorded by the alarm clock camera.

It showed that their dad had generally received excellent care

during his last year.

There was, literally, just this one bad apple.

And we don't want that to mar the home that Dad was in,

because everybody else was lovely with Dad.

We're going to have a lovely extravaganza of an evening

to raise money for the residents' fund.

Yeah, there'll be a few tears, but there'll also be lots of laughter.

Because that's what Pat loved, he loved to laugh,

he loved to smile, he loved just being witty.

Of course, most carers do a great job

and Pat's case is an exception rather than a rule.

But how can we, our family and friends avoid becoming victims

of theft in our own homes?

In the first instance, play a bit of the detective,

try and work out, "Well, when was the last time I saw it?

Who's been in the room? Who has access to my room?"

Make sure you've got your property easily identifiable.

So, if there was a chance that your money's been stolen,

then that can be marked,

I'd use a forensic marking solution or an ultraviolet pen.

Keep a diary of the events that are ongoing.

Usually, if people are suspicious that there's something happening,

they're usually right and their instincts should be trusted.

If you use a cashbox, then make sure the key is always on you.

So, there's no chance that the key can be found

and then the key used to open the cashbox.

Don't put your life savings under your mattress,

because someone will come and take it.

You'd think that a life running a village store in a rural hamlet

would be peaceful and crime free.

Sadly, that's not always the case.

Back in Brompton, North Yorkshire, everyone is horrified

about the harrowing axe attack by a masked man at the village store.

Everybody in the village was concerned.

Obviously, we was still out and about, but we were really,

really concerned about Christine.

Big shock, difficult to describe,

because I don't think I've ever experienced anything like that before.

The attack has affected the shop owners Jackie and Manjit, too.

My ten-year-old little girl, she was upset, you know.

She's walking the landing on a night,

"Are they coming back for you, Mam? Are they coming for you?"

So, it took a lot to calm our children down

and sit them down and explain that it doesn't happen every day,

it was just one of those things that had happened.

And we have to try and rebuild them, we just have to try and get over it.

With no obvious lines of inquiry,

DC Donna Anderson decides, once again, to review the footage

captured on the shop's surveillance cameras.

It was a very small unit that didn't look very sophisticated,

so, we didn't expect very much.

It is just a few seconds, but because of the amount of cameras in the shop,

and the way that the footage is gathered,

we do get quite a lot of footage of him, which is what we needed.

He's entering the shop and his way's blocked there by a lady

who is shopping and you'll see with her, probably her grandson.

The suspect makes his way straight to the back of the shop.

We get a good view of him, there - the front of him holding the bag,

we get to see how tall he is by comparing him with the shelves.

We've had every view of the suspect.

We've had in from the side, the back,

and now we're getting him from the front.

The footage is released to the public,

in a bid to get more information about the mystery man.

One name crops up several times.

19-year-old Marcus Richardson.

Donna, finally, has something to work with.

When I did a bit more digging on him, I realised that

he was actually living only about 200 metres from the shop.

And with some of the other information I had, you know,

on the police systems about him, it raised my suspicions

and I decided that I was going to arrest him.

With her number one suspect in custody,

Donna and her team search his house for evidence.

I'm going into his bedroom, I found there was a lot of clothing

that possibly might match that of the offender

and then when we went downstairs and searched some other cupboards

I found a rucksack and then the family had a log burner and an axe

and the axe looked similar.

I almost couldn't believe it, the axe was quite distinctive,

it was gold. I thought, "We might have him here."

And I couldn't wait to get back to the police station to interview him.

But the interview doesn't go as well as Donna hopes.

Richardson denies everything.

He's told me that he'd seen that type of axe

in hardware stores locally, that they bang them out in their millions,

and that I should go prove it.

Following the interview, where we had no admissions,

all I was left with really was the CCTV

and the items that I had taken from his house.

Without enough evidence to secure a conviction,

it looks like the case is dead in the water.

But Donna's not prepared to give up so easily.

After watching the video for hours and hours,

there was nothing I could see that would link them.

So, I sought some advice and found out that a department

were able to do analysis on CCTV with items

and may be able to make a match for me.

The job of making that match is down to an expert imagery investigator

Jacqueline Pestell, who works for a specialist forensics company.

I've been doing this job now, this role, for 11 years.

I've been involved in over 1,000 cases now.

I generally do about 50 cases a year.

Jacqueline needs to establish whether the man in the CCTV footage

is the same man the police have questioned, Marcus Richardson.

He is partially covered, there is only very limited facial features

that were available.

The results are inconclusive.

Jacqueline will need to dig a little deeper.

So, she analyses the personal items seized from Richardson's home.

Now, that coat, when we looked at the features on it,

there were a number of differences. It wasn't the same coat.

He also had a hat, and the hat did have a light tone logo

on the front of the hat, but it wasn't particularly distinctive.

There wasn't very much there to go on.

With the possibility of a conviction disappearing fast,

it's down to the final two pieces of evidence, the axe and the rucksack.

Following comparisons of those,

things started looking a bit more promising.

Jacqueline replicates the lighting conditions

and position of the objects, as they feature on the CCTV.

-First, the rucksack.

-So, the rucksack has a distinctive stain.

Erm...it's a large stain,

which is running up the first part of the strap, here.

So, that's what I was looking for when I went back to the CCTV.

I wanted to see if I could find that.

Now, outside, when the offender was walking towards the shop,

there's a lot of motion blur and the quality's not that great.

But there was one frame that I saw

and not only was it a dark tone there in the right place,

it was also the right shape.

So, I was happy that that was the same rucksack.

I got, kind of, a, you know, a eureka, kind of, moment.

Finally, some good news and there's more to come.

In this case, the axe had lots of wear and tear.

Some of the smaller marks, I wouldn't expect to see on the incident imagery

because of the resolution and quality.

The bigger features, sort of, tarnished areas,

they are present on this axe.

So, I thought, I should be able to see this.

So, that's what I then looked for and found them.

It's exactly the evidence Donna's been hoping for.

I was delighted when I got the report where various of the items

were considered to be either a strong or a powerful match to those seized.

Yeah, it was a brilliant day.

Although Marcus Richardson continued to deny the charge of robbery

and possession of an offensive weapon,

he did eventually change his plea to guilty, in court.

He was sentenced to three years in prison.

It's welcome news for those who work in the village shop.

First idea was for Christine to be told how long he'd got

and Christine was very pleased with that.

She's glad because she was panicking, in case he was going to come back in the shop again.

And Christine can now put the terrifying experience behind her.

If I hadn't come back, I would have been just at home

and trying to find another job

and I just thought, "Why should I let that idiot cause me to lose my job?"

He's having to pay the penalty for what he did.

That's it for today.

Join us next time, when the police and the public

catch more criminals red-handed.