Episode 1 Caught Red Handed

Thieves will steal our cars,

our valuables, just about anything they can get their hands on.

To cut down on crime and anti-social behaviour,

the police and other agencies are using new tactics and technology,

where the bad guys are getting caught in the act.

The CCTV was vital.

-You can see they are definitely the people there.

-The camera doesn't lie.

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

There's a eureka moment when you get that evidence.

And the general public, too,

can help unsuspecting crooks get their come-uppance.

People won't stand by.

I couldn't sit back and do nothing.

Yes, we've got her!

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

They might just get caught red-handed.

Today, seeing this woman creep furtively across the floor

of a disabled man's room comes as a nasty shock for his family.

We played all the footage back and what we seen horrified us.

What is going on?

Also today...

A Jekyll and Hyde transformation when this man walked into a shop.

You would never suspect a thing.

I just thought he was a regular customer.

But suddenly the man turns into a violent robber,

lashing out with a hammer.

He actually said, "You have two seconds before I knock your head off."

And a rat in a restaurant causes chaos,

but it's not the only rat in the room.

There's a twist in this tale!

Kings Heath in Birmingham.

Give the birds their tea.

Pat's a mother who's been a professional carer herself

as well as caring at home for her disabled son Trevor for many years,

so Pat knows a lot about caring

and she thought she knew a lot about carers -

until something happens that she finds truly shocking.

She's using that vacuum to mask the sound of her trying to access a safe.

And this is where she gets down on all fours,

peeking around the corner at my son.

It's no respect for him as a human being.

She's just completely taking advantage of him.

Before she retired, 69-year-old Pat worked

as a care assistant for the elderly with Birmingham Council.

During that time, she also cared for son Trevor,

so few people know more about what it takes to be a good carer.

Care workers are very special people.

You have to be trustworthy, honest,

and empower as many people to have a good life and feel respected.

Pat's second son Trevor was born in 1967.

She and her husband Eddie noticed Trevor developed rather slowly and,

when he started school, they became even more concerned about his health.

Trevor started falling over at school and he was seen as being

a bit of a nuisance to the staff and what have you.

And then we went to Birmingham Children's Hospital

and we were seen by a top neurologist,

and he done a cephalograph on us, which was the best they had

in those days, and he just said, "His brain's filling up with fluid.

"He'll be dead in 12 months. Take him home and love him."

It was terrible news but, thankfully, Trevor survived.

There we go. Nice cup of coffee.

His illness was shrouded in mystery, but was identified years

later as generalised dystonia, a degenerative disease of the brain.

It just means your nerve ends are no good,

so you can't control things.

His elbows will come in and his fingers will come up,

and...he couldn't tie his own shoelaces.

But he's got a wicked sense of humour. He really has!

No sugar? Oh, dear! What a bad care worker I am!

Can't get the staff today, can you, Trev?

As he grew up, Trevor's family made sure he lived life to the full,

but then tragedy struck twice in three years.

His father was playing badminton

when he suddenly collapsed with a heart attack and died.

Then it was Pat's turn.

And then I had a heart attack myself at 49 and I thought then,

"Oh, my God. I can just go out and pop off like his dad did."

So I thought, "Really, I have to empower Trevor

"for the rest of his life.

"Let's try and get him to be as independent as possible in the community."

Trevor embraced his new independence.

He moved out to a flat and lived there successfully for several

years before moving to this bungalow where he has more room.

He's got everything a disabled person could need in here.

Pat helped put together a team of four care workers,

so that Trevor can continue to live self-sufficiently.

For months, things seemed to run smoothly.

His care workers are so important to him and they're part of our

extended family, so when one abuses the position, it breaks your heart.

Pat begins to notice that items are going missing from the bungalow.

Honestly, you question your own mental ability.

"Did I put two toothpastes there? Did I buy some extra shaving gel?"

And cash is disappearing too.

Housekeeping money is kept in a safe

in the wardrobe in the spare room.

Only Pat and Trevor know the combination.

Pat tops the cash up each week and Trevor takes it out, either to

pay for something himself or to give to a carer to go out shopping.

Trevor's main carer asked me if I was sure I'd put the right amount

of money in and I thought, "Oh, my God, he thinks I've got dementia!"

But it's not Pat's mind that's going.

Someone is stealing and Pat believes it could only be one of the carers.

You don't like to face up to it

but it is, it's happening to your family.

And I thought the only way I can ever prove it is to catch

somebody red-handed.

She decides to enlist the help of a friend from a security company

and set up some cameras.

I like to think I'm honest and open myself. They're not hidden at all

and there's even a note on the front of the house - "Smile! You're on CCTV camera."

She also changes the code for the safe.

The cameras have only been recording for a few days

when Pat visits Trevor.

They decide to take a look at the pictures.

We played all the footage back and what we seen horrified us.

Absolutely horrified us.

It's Saturday night and one of the carers has just arrived.

Tonight, she is supposed to be spending time with Trevor,

but heads straight into the spare room and opens the wardrobe.

With no reason for her to be in there, there's only one explanation -

she's trying to get into the safe.

You can see this is Trevor's room and it's still in darkness.

She hasn't opened the curtains,

she hasn't shown any respect for the person's home she's in.

The carer can't open the safe because Pat has changed the code,

but she visits the spare room time and time again.

Her behaviour is becoming increasingly bizarre.

Her role is not cleaning.

She's in for a social call on a Saturday night.

The safe does go "click, click, click, click"

every time you press a number.

She is using that vacuum to mask the sound of her trying to access the safe.

Returning on Sunday, she heads once again to the wardrobe.

No, the safe still won't open.

When we totted it up, she made at least 30 attempts to access

that safe and she shut the door to stop anybody hearing.

I can really imagine her being quite angry by now

that we'd changed the code.

And this is where she gets down on all fours like a dog,

peeking around the corner at my son.

How humiliated would you feel if that was your loved one?

Pat's determined to bring the carer to justice.

There is no footage of money actually being stolen but,

with so many attempts caught on camera,

she hopes it's enough evidence for the authorities.

It became so important to me to protect other disabled

and vulnerable adults because she can just flit from one

family to another and, I couldn't morally...

I couldn't let her do that.

The police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the court agree.

The woman is found guilty on two counts of attempted theft.

She is given a 12-month suspended prison sentence

and is ordered to do 150 hours of unpaid work.

Pat gets to hear the news.

I got the phone call off the police and I absolutely cheered.

Thank God it's over!

Trevor soon recovered from the upset

and continues to get on well with the rest of his carers.

He's just got on with things

and he's got wonderful people in his life.

And everyone's happy to keep the cameras up.

It was funny, really, because Trevor had a Valentine's card

put through the door and he didn't know who it was from.

SHE LAUGHS

It was rather funny, so we went back through the footage

and it was one of his care workers,

which was awfully sweet of her.

They are an extended family

and I think that's a wonderful relationship.

Now, like a scene from a film,

two burglars tried to steal a cash machine from a casino,

but as heist movies go, this is less slick...

more like slapstick.

A casino cleaner goes to see what's causing a racket

and runs in terror when two men smash through the door.

She needn't have worried, though.

Turns out they're more of a danger to themselves.

One of the burglars knocks over this sign -

keep an eye on that -

while the other follows with a trolley.

They load up a heavy cash machine.

One of the crooks then trips over the fallen sign.

Ouch.

Heaving the heavy machine back up,

these clumsy criminals nearly forget their dropped crowbar.

The pair drive off.

But the last laugh is on them.

Their casino gamble doesn't pay off

because the cash machine they stole is empty.

They fail to see its out of service sign.

Well, we already know they're not good at spotting signs.

And with the footage going viral on the internet,

this dumb duo must have red faces as well as empty pockets

because now the whole world knows

their raid was more crackpot than jackpot.

Coming up...

A restaurant owner fears for his livelihood

after a rat runs out from under a table.

You feel like the whole world's just fell out.

But there may be more to this than meets the eye.

Is someone trying to rattle him?

Sometimes, in just a few seconds,

an ordinary day can turn into an extraordinary experience

that we will never forget,

but for all the wrong reasons.

The peaceful, pleasant town centre of Godalming, Surrey.

It's an unlikely setting for violence.

But in one of these shops,

a young assistant faces a terrifying ordeal

when a customer viciously turns on her.

He was like, "Give me all your money or I'll kill you within two seconds."

I don't think any of us would expect

to be confronted by somebody wielding a hammer.

That moment, I thought, "Could I die?"

This computer shop on Godalming High Street

is part of a family-run chain that started in 1979.

Mark is the general manager.

It's grown from one premises to eight premises

and it's a family feel and a family atmosphere

within the business as well.

Ethan has worked here part-time while studying at university.

He wants to tell his story, but has asked us

not to reveal his real name or show his face.

I do love the job here because you get to work with

a bit of everything, really,

everything in the IT industry.

One of the company's services is installing CCTV systems for customers

and their own shops are fitted out with cameras

to help protect staff and deter crime.

Generally, it's shop theft, you know,

where they sneakily take a small item,

so CCTV is imperative for us.

Student Ethan has never known any trouble in the Godalming shop.

It's a quiet, easy-going place to work.

Ethan is genuinely a very nice person. Very friendly, very helpful.

Customers love him to bits.

My role is not to see anyone as suspicious.

Treat everyone equally as nice, as well,

trying and give them the best support and advice as possible.

So, one winter's morning, Ethan has no concerns

when this customer arrives in the shop.

He had a hat. He wore glasses. He wore gloves.

I offered him advice, saying, "Do you need any help?"

He was like, "No, I'm just looking around, browsing."

Ethan is on his own while his manager's on an early lunch break.

Another couple of customers come in.

Ethan goes to serve them.

The first customer continues to look around for a few minutes.

Then the couple left really nicely

and I went back to my typical repairs

because it wasn't that busy in the shop at the time.

But now, the man approaches the counter

and what Ethan can't see is the man has pulled out a hammer from his clothes.

So, I went there, asked him, "Do you still need any help?"

And that's when everything suddenly happened.

The man violently brandishes the hammer.

Ethan is terrified for his life.

Complete shock.

I really didn't know what to...do.

It's just...pure fear.

His expression and the way he was going to use a hammer,

he was like, "Give me all your money or I'll kill you within two seconds."

Bravely, he tries to calm the man down.

Obviously, he wasn't listening and he got more angry.

He banged on the table really, really hard.

The whole counter shakes under the force of the blow.

He actually said, "I just literally came out of prison.

"You have two seconds before I knock your head off,"

and I really believed it.

Ethan opens the till.

Because I was so shocked at the time,

I didn't even touch the money,

and he just took it and ran.

He's left numb after the ordeal.

I was staying still for a little while,

just to kind of get in my head

that this actually has happened.

Ethan phones Mark to tell him about the robbery.

It was very disturbing.

When something like that happens to a member of your staff,

you feel pretty bad for them, obviously.

I said to him,

"I'll call the police and your store manager for you straight away.

"They will be there within two minutes and then we'll make sure that you're safe."

Local police officers are quickly on the scene.

Detective Constable Lawrence Burden is called in from headquarters.

They watch back the whole robbery caught on the shop's CCTV cameras.

It provides important clues.

Not only you have clear facial images that can be identified,

but also you've got cameras in the right positions

to actually show what he did at the till.

Lawrence is shocked by what he sees.

I don't think any of us, let alone Ethan,

would expect to be confronted by somebody wielding a hammer.

Time probably stood still for him for a while

and, although the male was stood at the till for a matter of a minute,

it probably felt like an hour.

Terrifying as it was, Ethan still tried to reason with the robber.

You know, he should be commended for trying to prevent

the male committing this crime.

But commit it, he did,

all for a meagre £120.

It's clear the robber hadn't done his homework.

There's rarely much cash in the till.

I'd say that nine out of ten people pay by card now,

so to come in asking for cash, it was a bit of a strange crime.

And oddly, while the man wore gloves and a hood,

presumably to avoid leaving evidence,

he failed to spot the cameras right in front of his face.

It's a strange one.

Either he didn't see them,

or he's just so focused on what he's doing,

he's oblivious to what's going on around him.

Whatever the reason, the clear images are a big help to the detectives.

Within minutes, they send a picture of his face

to the rest of their colleagues in the force.

It wasn't long after that that a name was put forward

and I was still on the scene, so that was within the hour.

The man is 30-year-old Charles Vek.

His last known address is in Hampshire.

Lawrence speaks to the neighbouring force.

He's very well-known to Hampshire Police,

what we would refer to as a prolific and priority offender.

Officers start a thorough search for Vek, who's disappeared.

Ethan's kept informed.

The police said, "We're going to try our best to catch him as soon as possible

"and, knowing he's already done crimes in the past,

"it should be a lot easier than if the person's never done anything."

Also, Lawrence notices that Vek appears to have an injury.

Life on the run could be painful.

As he leaves, you can see he's walking with a pronounced limp.

It was just another little bit of evidence,

something else that could tie him to the incident.

A couple of days go by,

then Lawrence gets the phone call he's waiting for.

Vek's been arrested.

Some local officers over in Hampshire

came by him Alton train station,

so I was really pleased cos I was starting to think,

"When are we going to find him?"

Back in Surrey, Vek, who's still limping,

refuses to be interviewed, but that doesn't matter.

Lawrence has solid evidence on camera.

It didn't really impact on what we needed to do.

You can have 100 witness statements

and witnesses will always see an incident in a different light,

but you can't argue with this good quality CCTV.

It shows the whole incident from start to finish.

Ethan's relieved Vek's in custody.

I felt a lot safer.

I'm happy the person's going to face the consequences.

Vek pleads guilty in court to the robbery in Godalming

and two other crimes.

He is sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Lawrence is happy with the result.

It feels good to know that this person is going to be

off the streets and he's not going to have the opportunity

to do this to anyone else.

And Ethan has found the experience

has changed his outlook on life for the better.

It's only when you stare death in the face

you reflect upon everything that you've done in your whole life,

whether that's good or bad, and I feel like, in the end,

I'm better as a person because I know this has happened to me.

I'll appreciate life so much more.

It's unlikely any of us will ever find ourselves in Ethan's situation,

but what should someone do

if they come face-to-face with a violent person?

The police have some advice.

The most important thing is your safety.

Don't put up a fight.

If they want to take something from you, then let them have it.

The valuables are not important and your health is.

Depending on the circumstances you face,

if you're in the middle of a town or a crowd, shouting for help,

or screaming, or using anything like a whistle, or anything like that,

would actually put them off and they're likely to flee.

If the offender has some distinguishable features,

make a mental note of these. Perhaps his description, his hair colour,

the fact that he's wearing glasses or perhaps has a tattoo,

or a particularly unusual item of clothing.

Then make a note of these

because these are really good bits of evidence were the police.

Try to work out the best escape route

so that you can try to get out of the area as quickly as possible.

Create that distance from that individual.

It's perfectly acceptable, you know.

In any situation, running away is a good option.

When you're eating out, believe it or not, there is one thing that's worse

than finding a fly in your soup

and that's spotting a rat on the loose.

Sunderland in the north-east of England...

..and the tall tale of a creature with a long tail.

I heard him shout, "Rat!"

They're a menace to the catering industry.

The worst thing that can ever happen with a restaurant is

if you get shut down for rats.

Like a scene from the film Ratatouille, an apparently

revolting rodent is spotted in a busy bistro.

Just absolute shock.

But there's a twist to the tale

involving a rat of the two-legged kind.

Over the past seven years,

Kevin's restaurant has become a popular place to eat in Sunderland.

Every day's just busy, busy, busy. It's gone crazy.

The following we have is absolutely tremendous.

It all started when Kevin

had a stroke of good fortune in a foreign land.

He had been travelling abroad for a year and wasn't ready to go home.

I was walking down the streets and I saw a travel agents said,

"Fly to Borneo today",

and I thought, "I'll go to Borneo today."

As soon as he got off the plane in Borneo, Kevin met Remi.

We got on great, fantastic.

I knew then I was going to marry her. And I knew.

I said to her, "I'm going to marry you." She said, "I know."

I said, "I've been waiting for you."

And after tying the knot,

Kevin immersed himself in a new life with Remi in Borneo.

That's where I really got my passion for food -

the Philippines and Borneo.

Malaysian food is just the best in the world. Absolutely incredible.

A year later, the couple returned to the UK.

Remy's a lecturer in food hygiene and, together,

they decided to build their own bit of Borneo in Sunderland.

They took over a local restaurant, redecorated

and introduced authentic dishes from their travels.

It was a dream come true.

But then, one Saturday, they have a visit from an unwanted dinner guest.

What happens next is caught on the bistro's CCTV cameras.

It was a great atmosphere. Everybody was fantastic.

Everybody was my regular customers. We were having a laugh, as we do.

Then Kevin spots a man who is banned from the restaurant

because of some previous antisocial behaviour.

One of my colleagues served him.

She didn't know that he'd already been banned from the premises.

The man pays for his food and drink and sits down quietly.

But 15 minutes later, customers are startled by a very loud shriek.

I heard him shout, "Rat!"

He shot back to the end of the restaurant, where we could see him.

The customers shot back with him.

There was a lot of bad language from him.

Hearing there's a rat in the restaurant

is a scary moment for Kevin and his staff.

The only way I can describe it is when you get such a bad shock

that your whole body goes cold and shivery,

and you feel like your whole world has just fell out.

That's the end of everything I built over the seven years.

I just thought, "People with their mobile phones.

"Are they going to be putting this on social media?

"This is going to go everywhere."

But as Kevin goes to investigate,

he's surprised to find his customers, far from being panicked,

are actually being calm and supportive

because all is not as it seems.

A regular customer says, "Kevin, that's a pet rat.

"That's not one from outside." And the best feeling in the world

was all the customers that were here,

nobody put it on the social media at all out of respect for me.

When Kevin sees the rat for himself - phew -

he realises it is a pet rat.

It was black and white. It was cute. It was cleaning its whiskers,

and there was nothing menacing about, like you would get from a grey rat.

If you can call a rat beautiful, it was stunning.

Stunning? Well...

But it's clear this rat is no dirty rat.

Meanwhile, the man who rattled everyone by shouting "rat" has left.

The rat is put in an animal-friendly container, ready for an expert

to see, and the restaurant settles back down as if nothing has happened.

When pest control came around the back, I showed them the rat.

They said, "That's a pet rat.

"Somebody's tried to sabotage your business." That's his exact words.

But, later on, the man who spotted the right comes back

and asks for a refund for his meal.

Kevin smells a rat.

Suspecting the man released the animal on purpose, he baits a trap.

If the man did release the rat,

by claiming money, he'd be guilty of fraud.

I took him to where the till is,

I gave him his money in front of the camera and then I knew I had him.

After closing time, Kevin and his staff look back at the CCTV

footage to see what happened.

We were just absolutely flabbergasted.

After he had collected his meal, the man chooses a seat next to a wall.

Over the next ten minutes, as he eats his meal,

the man looks down to his right-hand pocket.

Then, when the couple next to him have left and he's not overlooked,

the man releases the rodent...

shrieks and tries to cause as much commotion as possible.

But he doesn't realise

that the camera has seen him behaving like a rat

and now he's trapped like a rat. Kevin calls the police.

In court, the man is sentenced to a 12-month community order,

a rehabilitation order, and has to pay a surcharge and compensation.

Whatever his reason for crying wolf, or rather crying rat,

the result is certainly not what he intended.

For something that could have been a disaster, just flipside -

it just went the opposite way.

The pest control company found a new home for the rat with a good Samaritan.

The rat's got a whole new life, a better one than what it had,

which I'm pleased about.

When the story reached the newspapers,

the tale of the rat spread far and wide.

It went global, so customers start piling in from everywhere.

They were laughing about it, they were joking.

Asked me if ratatouille was on the menu. You know, making a lot of -

because they know my sense of humour.

I just felt blessed. Borneo has just been such a lucky, lucky place.

Borneo's a lucky place, anyway, for the people who live there.

It's a very passionate, beautiful place.

And if you can bring some of that

back to your homeland, it's...it's fantastic.

That's it for today. Join us next time,

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