Episode 11 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, the police

and other agencies are using new tactics and technology

so the bad guys get caught in the act.

-The CCTV is gold dust.

-Great evidence for the police.

Got to have him stopped.

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

The 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, a burglar's broken in to a business

but the owners can see the raid live on their mobile phones.

I don't know what we need to do. We need to do something.

They race to the shop,

but find themselves face-to-face with the burglar.

As soon as he saw me shouting, he was really panicking.

Also today, the appalling sight of a truck driver deliberately

dumping over a tonne of dangerous waste in a street.

It smelled horrific.

It is an appalling thing to do, as far as I am concerned.

'There was asbestos and there was also a toilet

'and human faecal material contained in the waste.'

Absolutely disgusting.

And another scarcely credible crime as a shop lifter tries

to steal a chainsaw by stuffing it down his shorts.

This man's definitely not the sharpest tool in the box.

Derby in the East Midlands.

It's the early hours of the morning

and a burglar is raiding a local store.

What he doesn't know is that the shop's horrified owners are watching

him live on their smartphones at home as he steals their goods.

He was inside. Terrifying.

It's my place.

Somebody is stealing my stuff. So I got angry.

But the couple are so shocked by what they're seeing,

they now make a serious mistake.

By pressing the wrong button on their phone,

they cancel the shop's alarm,

which means the police aren't alerted.

Realising their error, the couple believe the only way

to catch the man is to rush to the shop themselves.

I don't know what we need to do. We need to do something.

With the thief about to escape with thousands of pounds worth

of their goods, the chase is on, and it's going to end dramatically.

The bustling city of Derby was home to one of the world's

first ever factories, and its fame is built on industry and commerce.

Husband and wife Samy and Kala

have run their own business here for the past three years.

And they've made the city their home.

We've been married 22 years now

and we've been living together very happily.

And we've got a 17-year-old son who is doing A-level now.

At one end of their business premises, Samy and Kala have

a convenience store and at the other, they run a restaurant.

This is my life, actually, for me and my son and my whole family.

It is the only south Indian restaurant in Derby.

Most of our customers are British and they love to come

and have food with us.

It is quite nice.

But keeping their two businesses going requires a great

deal of effort.

Kala also works as a nurse, while Samy runs both the shop

and restaurant day-to-day.

Most of the time my husband goes to bed around one o'clock

and two o'clock because getting every single penny

from the shop is not easy.

He's a very hard worker.

It's difficult making a living.

And the threat of crime makes it even harder.

After suffering two previous break-ins,

they decided to install an alarm and cameras.

We've got CCTVs in our home

and shops that are all connected to our phone.

They can use their mobile phones to view their shop's

security camera system any time at home,

and it will alert them if the shop alarm is ever triggered.

And one April night, this system proves to be crucial.

It's just gone half past three in the morning. Samy, Kala

and their 17-year-old son are asleep at home when their phone rings.

PHONE RINGS

I answered it. I was really half asleep.

It's an unwelcome wake-up call.

An automated message from their shop's alarm system.

There's been a break in.

It says, "Intruder inside in your premises.

"Do you want to handle it?" If you want to handle it, you press one.

If you don't want to then it's press two, it goes to the police,

and I accidentally pressed one.

Still drowsy and shocked by the call, Kala presses the wrong button

and actually stops the alert going to the police.

Literally made me jump. "Oh, my God, I've pressed the wrong button

"so I have to tackle this."

Kala desperately shakes husband Samy awake.

He checks the store cameras on his phone.

And my husband jumped up saying, "Somebody's inside."

Samy is horrified by what he sees.

A burglar is ransacking their shop right in front of his eyes.

It's my place. Somebody is stealing my stuff, so I got angry.

It's really... Why are they doing it to us? That's my... Why?

The burglar's unaware a silent alarm's been triggered.

He's turned over the restaurant, bust through into the stock room

and now grabs what he can from behind the shop's counter.

I don't know what we need to do. We need to do something.

Knowing the police haven't been called, Samy believes

it's down to him to rush to the shop and stop the burglar.

It's only a few minutes' drive away.

Kala holds back for a moment to make a 999 call to the police.

I said to them, "I have to go. Can you send the police?

"I have to put the phone down."

Kala runs to Samy, who's about to drive off.

I said, "No, you don't need to come."

She said, "No, no, I won't allow you alone so I'll come with you."

The couple set off in the car.

We've been both talking about what we are going to do.

I didn't plan anything, just we wanted to go and catch him.

Meanwhile, at the shop, the cameras show the thief is stuffing

packs of cigarettes into a bag.

Hearing a noise outside, he pauses.

But it's not Kala and Samy he's hearing.

It's a newspaper delivery driver dropping off the morning papers,

completely unaware of what's going on inside the building.

Hearing the noises outside, the burglar decides it's time

to get out, so grabs the loot, picking up the shop's safe too.

Knowing there's someone outside, he runs through to the stock room,

desperate to find another way out of the store.

It's at this moment Samy and Kala arrive outside.

They pull up next to the newspaper van.

My husband said, "It's the newspaper delivery man."

Kala tells the delivery driver about the burglar inside the shop.

She begs for his help and she gets it.

He didn't think second thought or anything. Just instantly said yes.

Brave man.

They split up to look for the burglar. The driver runs to

one side of the building.

Samy and Kala head off in different directions to cover

all possible exits.

Then Kala spots a fire escape door is ajar.

So I was just putting my feet a bit higher up to see what's

happening and I was watching the door.

Suddenly, she comes face-to-face

with the burglar on the other side of the fence.

He stood there.

As soon as he saw me here and shouting, he was really

panicking and he was so stressed out and he said, "Bloody hell."

While Kala shouts to tell her husband

and delivery driver she's spotted the thief,

the intruder tries to get away by climbing over a wall.

She shouted, "He is escaping. Help, help."

Samy realises the burglar's heading to the building next door

and runs round.

I ran out. I wanted to catch him.

He sees the man jumping down from this wall and tries to grab him.

I started to catch him but I lost my balance,

so I fell into the floor

and there was some stones and nails there, so my hand was injured.

In the meantime, he jumped round the floor

and started running towards the gate.

But the burglar's running into trouble, because Kala

and the newspaper delivery driver are coming round the corner.

I said, "Can we catch him up, please? Go and catch him. Go and catch him".

So we literally ran.

The driver grabs the thief and so does Kala.

It took a while for us to stop him.

We both need to force him to sit down on the floor.

Then I said to him, "Calm down. You can't escape from us."

Finally, the burglar stops struggling.

My heart was going like... galloping like a horse.

In the meantime, the police... Within a minute, they came here.

A police officer comes over and handcuffs the burglar.

I said to him, "Thank God you are here."

But still, I couldn't talk to him

any further because I was so breathless.

He took him from us, and arrested and took him to their car.

The public-spirited newspaper driver gets back to his delivery round

while police officers check the shop.

He broke three doors, and a lot of damage he did.

But they've stopped the thief from getting away

with £8,000 worth of their goods.

A stunned Kala and Samy return home,

back to the bed they left less than an hour ago.

And what an hour it's been.

I couldn't believe that's what we did - caught him.

I literally went up to wake my son to tell him what happened.

He still was asleep, bless him.

In court, the burglar is sentenced to 20 months in prison.

For their actions, the couple were awarded £500 each for bravery,

as was the delivery driver.

After everything happened I said to him, "Thank you."

Samy's particularly impressed by Kala's part in catching the burglar.

She was running here and there and she was giving instructions,

so I am proud of her.

Really amazed myself, how I could I react in a stressful situation.

Just a few seconds, everything happened and we caught him.

Confronting a criminal is best avoided,

but if we're unlucky enough to come face-to-face with

an intruder in our homes, what should we do?

The number-one thing is your safety,

so running away or hiding is absolutely the right thing to do.

The best thing you can do if an intruder is on the premises

is think of an escape route. Always think - protecting yourself

and others that are with you.

You could call 999 and you don't have to speak. The police

will still be able to listen to everything that's being said

and this could be essential evidentially, later on in court.

The worst thing you can do is corner and offender,

become aggressive and challenge them.

Fight or flight is a basic human instinct,

so that will apply to the criminal as much as you.

If you remove the flight option, then effectively

you've got a fight on your hands.

Try and remain calm. Call for the police.

We will respond. Don't make the situation any worse

than it needs to be.

And now for the most bizarre shoplifting attempt you'll

ever see. Or should that be SAW?!

In a garden equipment shop, this man has picked up a big orange chainsaw.

What he does next is unbelievable.

Hiding behind the high counter, he stuffs it into his shorts.

It's just as well the chain guard is on -

otherwise he'd be sore in all the wrong places.

Attempting to conceal it under his T-shirt,

he saunters out of the store.

Unsurprisingly, the staff saw exactly what he was up to

and called the police.

Later arrested,

the chainsaw thief is told he will have to spend a year in jail.

So no doubt he'll be feeling rather SAW about the whole thing.

A pair of bad pennies

break into a museum and shop

and steal a treasured collection of antique coins.

It was years of collecting. I was sickened.

But then the thieves try to spend the vintage coins

at a supermarket.

Not the brightest of couples.

Most of us dispose of our rubbish carefully.

But some people's idea of taking care of their waste

is to tip it outside other people's homes,

and sometimes on a massive scale.

Blackpool, Lancashire.

This back lane runs behind a street of family homes.

A truck drives down the lane.

And what happens next is simply beyond belief. The driver

callously tips a tonne and a half of dirty,

dangerous waste all over the road. And this is no accident.

Unbelievable!

I was absolutely gobsmacked. I've never seen anything like it before.

It's disgusting for the local residents.

It's an appalling thing to do, as far as I'm concerned.

It smelled absolutely horrific.

And this turns out to be just one in a string of offences

by a brazen rubbish dumper.

This is the biggest fly-tipping case ever

in Blackpool Council's history.

It's absolutely disgusting.

Blackpool is famous for the Tower, the Golden Mile, beach,

and its illuminations.

But recently, a shadow was being cast over this

bright, colourful resort by the large-scale dumping of rubbish

in parts of the town.

Tim Coglan works for Blackpool Council.

'There are many different types of fly tipping.'

There's a small bag of rubbish being dumped in the street, right the way

through to commercial fly tips.

Commercial fly tippers are rogue traders who charge customers

to get rid of rubbish for them.

But to avoid the costs of proper waste disposal sites,

they just dump it illegally.

And the council have to clean it up.

It is costing over half a million pounds every year,

when there are so many causes that that money could be used for.

And Tim believes dumping rubbish causes neighbourhoods to deteriorate.

There is actually a feeling that

if an area appears to be unkempt, then people think it's all right

to commit further criminal offences in that area, so it's also possibly

increasing crime and people's fear of crime, from those fly tips.

Blackpool resident Vivian has seen how illegal dumping can

affect the neighbourhood.

She and her husband moved here 35 years ago to raise their family.

Moved in 1st of July, 1980,

and it was a lovely community at that time.

'We sort of watch out for each other.'

If anybody goes on holiday, we keep an eye on things

for each other and those sort of things.

Then, a few years ago, waste started to appear

in the lane behind their house.

Televisions, sofas, fridges. One of our neighbours, she's on dialysis

and numerous times it's stopped ambulances

actually coming down the back

because of the rubbish that's there.

Each time the council cleared it up, more rubbish would appear.

Then Vivian notices that crime starts to rise.

The community deteriorated over that period of time.

In 2004, there had been some vandalism on my house.

My husband was really upset about it

so he actually had cameras installed both front and back of the house.

The cameras act as a deterrent and most of the problems stop.

Now, years later, Vivian's children have moved out

and her husband has passed away.

My daughters want me to move, but I've lived here 35 years now.

There's an awful lot of good memories

and I don't want to move. I love the house.

But one day recently, Vivian had a shock when she came out

to find mattresses and sofas strewn the entire length of her back lane.

Unfortunately, her cameras didn't offer many clues.

The black and white camera wasn't working very well

so I decided, "To heck with it, I'm going to have new ones installed".

The new cameras soon prove crucial.

It's a Monday morning, just gone 9:30am.

Vivian is sitting at her computer.

I heard this almighty bang, looked through the window

and saw the lorry flying by.

She rushes out the back to see the lorry disappearing round the corner.

And what's left behind on the road is staggering.

It was absolutely horrendous.

It started in front of my garage, all the way past my gate,

all the way up almost to the top of the alleyway.

And it stunk like sewage out of ditches or whatever.

Vivian's neighbour also can't believe

what he's seeing and smelling.

I said to him, "Don't worry about it. I've caught him on camera."

And this is what the cameras have captured.

A driver in a tipper truck drives down the lane.

Travelling at speed, he raises the back

and recklessly empties its contents.

I just find it appalling that anybody could do it to other people.

I just get angry about it.

Vivian calls the council right away.

Obviously officers responded within the hour to get down there

to seal off the area, to make sure that nothing was going to cause

any immediate public health issues.

And there are some big health issues.

One was the fact that there is asbestos amongst the rubble,

and there was also a toilet and human faecal material

contained in the waste.

Imagine, for instance, if children were deciding

to play down that back alleyway.

Absolutely disgusting.

Determined to catch this fly tipper quickly,

Tim is grateful for the footage from Vivian's cameras.

This is manna from heaven when it comes to proving

the evidence for a prosecution.

The number plate of the truck is clearly visible.

The registration mark of that vehicle is checked to ascertain who

the owner of the vehicle is.

They get the name of the truck owner and find that he runs

a waste disposal firm.

To help build their case,

before they clear the rubbish from Vivian's back lane, the council

officers have the horrible task of searching through it for clues.

It could be invoices, it could be letter headings, anything that

identifies where the rubbish has come from.

They find the rubbish is from a building company.

And they were visited to find out, "Did you dump this rubbish?"

They reveal they paid a man to dispose of it for them

and they give his name to Tim's team.

It turns out he is an associate of the truck's registered owner.

It so happens that a member of Tim's team has dealt with

the suspect before, and by coincidence, spotted him

driving past on the same day of the fly tip.

One of our officers witnessed this individual wearing this

striking T-shirt,

in the same registration-marked van that was on the CCTV coverage.

Now Tim and his team can prove who dumped the waste,

they decide to widen their investigation.

When officers start to analyse previous complaints

around fly tipping, there is other intelligence

that links this particular individual

to other fly-tipping offences.

They painstakingly unearth evidence that connects the driver to

nine other cases of fly tipping and the owner of the truck to four.

He is a serial fly tipper, and this is the biggest

fly-tipping case that Blackpool Council has ever prosecuted.

In court, the driver is sentenced to 39 weeks in prison,

suspended for a year.

He's also ordered to do unpaid work and pay £1,000 in compensation.

The owner of the truck receives a suspended jail sentence

and a community order.

It's a clear message to would-be fly tippers. You will be

punished appropriately, so just don't do it.

Vivian's cameras did their job and there hasn't been any trouble since.

I was rather pleased with myself, the fact that they caught him,

pleased that the council was going to do something about it, and

even more pleased when I heard that he'd been fully prosecuted for it.

And anybody else that wants to try it, they've got me to contend with.

These old-fashioned coins might be worth a pretty penny to a collector,

but you wouldn't be able to use them at your local supermarket.

And surely no-one would be silly enough to try and spend them nowadays. Or would they?

In a shopping arcade in Bolton, this coin collector's museum and shop

has shut its doors for the night. But these two want to open it again.

They don't use a key.

As you're about to hear, they just throw a brick through the window...

THUDDING

..and lay waste to a man's lifetime collection of rare coins.

It was years of collecting, and I was sickened.

But these two try to spend their loot and find crime doesn't pay.

They're trying to use the large 5ps, the large 10ps

and the large 50ps.

Not the brightest of couples.

Best not to get caught short when you're trying to spend a penny.

North-west of Manchester, the town of Bolton

is home to old soldier Stan.

PennyWise Money Museum and Coin Shop is his passion.

It's taken him decades to build up a huge collection

of unusual old coins.

This is eight reales, which is also known as pieces of eight

to the old pirates and everything else. They were made in full silver.

Ten of them was equivalent to a gold doubloon.

Stan offers advice to fellow enthusiasts,

as well as buying and selling coins and other collectables.

-Light Infantry, here.

-That's the one.

-Yes. That's the one.

'I enjoy the challenge, you know? "What is this? What is that?"'

And I'm pretty good at what I do.

These days, he's surrounded by all sorts of money,

but Stan's early life was penniless.

Born in the middle of World War II, by 1946 his family were homeless.

When I was about four years old,

me and my brother were found living in a car

and we both had pneumonia. And my brother died, but I survived.

And from there they put us in a Dr Barnardo's home.

Coins were something scarce and exciting for Stan,

and he grew fascinated by collecting them.

I obtained some German coins, and they were from the soldiers

coming back from the Second World War.

That's where I started my collection.

At 18 he joined the Royal Engineers, travelled the world

and started to collect foreign coins.

And each place I went, these bags of coins were getting bigger

and bigger, but they had to be something unusual.

I couldn't stop then. It was a bug.

While touring the Far East, he met Mai.

She was just a lovely person. Still is. Kindest person I've ever known.

But in later life, Mai is diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Stan becomes her full-time carer.

I was always looking after her, because I do everything.

But it was too much for me.

Stan organises carers to look after Mai during the day

and gives some attention to the other great love of his life.

His passion for coins.

So he opens the PennyWise Coin Shop and Museum.

My wife is the most important thing, but it does give me

great satisfaction to actually have a shop here

and do something I wanted to do many years ago.

But recently, Stan's peace was shattered by

two unwelcome visitors to his shop.

What happens is recorded on the arcade CCTV.

It's 5:20 in the afternoon, and as the paying customers leave,

two men with no intention of paying wait behind.

They head for Stan's museum.

One keeps lookout while the man in the hat moves into the alcove

by the museum door.

The lookout goes outside to make sure the coast is clear.

The thieves talk on the phone.

INDISTINCT CONVERSATION

There's no-one around.

CRASH

The man smashes the window and grabs Stan's treasured collection,

including sets of mint-condition coins in their original cases.

The lookout walks off. The man with the hat and the bag of loot

isn't far behind.

It's taken the thieves just two minutes to steal

part of a collection that's taken Stan over 60 years to create.

Next morning, on his 73rd birthday,

Stan arrives at the museum to find the shop window smashed.

It was quite devastating, really,

because it was years of collecting, and I was sickened.

The police are called and the arcade's CCTV camera is checked.

CRASH

Even now, it's difficult viewing for Stan.

I think he's raking the stuff through the window.

Really, really annoyed, you know?

But while the police are still at the shop,

they get a call from a nearby supermarket.

Two men are trying to spend old-fashioned coins.

They're trying to use coins, but the half-pence is a little thing that went out in '84.

The large 5ps, the large 10ps, and large 50ps.

Not the brightest of couples.

Supermarket staff delay the pair of penny-pinching crooks

while police rush to the store.

And they were still at the tills.

And their pockets were bulging with coins.

The pair are arrested.

But Stan's heartbroken to discover his pristine coins

are no longer in their cases.

These are mint coins. Unscratched, unhandled by... Unless with gloves.

And they had scratched every single coin as they took it

out of the containers.

They're not worth scrap now.

Determined to see the men get their comeuppance,

he decides to go along to the court case.

And the judge said after a bit, "Well, I find you guilty. Now get them out of here."

Just like that. She says, "Take them down."

That's what she said. I thought, "Great."

After foolishly trying to spend Stan's money, this pair end up

spending time.

They are both sentenced to 26 weeks in prison

and ordered to pay compensation.

Stan has found a positive side to the theft.

It's been good advertising in one way, cos people

do come in and say, "I saw you in the paper."

And Stan's not ready to give up the shop, and his collection, just yet.

I will carry on collecting till I more or less pop my clogs.

I wouldn't let so-and-sos get me down.

That's it for today.

Join us next time, when police

and the public catch more criminals red-handed.