Episode 13 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.

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 comeuppance.

People won't stand by.

I couldn't sit back and do nothing.

Yes! We've got her.

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

They might just get caught red-handed.

Today...

A terrifying ordeal for a grandmother

when a robber forces his way into her home.

I thought I was going to die.

In your own house at 11 o'clock in the morning.

But she bravely puts up a fight.

I said, "Get out!"

Also today, two garden gates.

Over one of them,

a parcel courier tries out

her own special form of airmail delivery.

And over another gate, he's not delivering anything.

He's a burglar, determined to take whatever he can.

He tries to karate kick a paving slab in half to throw through

the window, but then he tries the whole slab.

Eccles in Greater Manchester.

On her way back from collecting her pension,

76-year-old Shirley realises she's being followed by this man.

And just a few minutes later, police receive a terrified 999 call.

The robber runs off.

And it's not the first time he's struck in this neighbourhood.

A week before, the same man snatched a mobile phone.

The locals are on the alert for him.

His picture has been circulated around the area.

They all look out for each other

and when something like this happens to one of their own,

they don't like it.

But then there's an extraordinary turn of events for one

of the local bobbies.

It's a set of circumstances that's probably never going to

happen again in my career.

A one in a million chance.

Eccles is famous for its small, round currant cakes.

The people here are proud of their town

and they're a close-knit community.

Eccles is on the patch of Detective Constable Paul Davies

and Police Constable Simon Quinn of Greater Manchester Police.

Eccles is an extremely diverse community

with people from all different walks of life.

It's certainly a community where

everyone looks out for each other.

The residents of Eccles have created a social media site where

they can share news about life in the town.

There is a really good community spirit between the residents.

One of those residents, Eccles born and bred,

is a 76-year-old woman we'll just call Shirley.

She's asked us not to give her real name or show her face.

She's lived here in the same house for over 30 years.

We was quite happy.

It was the first house we'd ever had.

And as time went on, of course, the children got married and left.

And it was just me and my husband.

My husband died and then it was just me.

I like it, the neighbours are nice.

If you need a bit of help, they'll help you.

And there's an example of how the locals help each other

when two crimes happen there within days of each other.

The first happens one Monday morning in January.

A man snatches a mobile phone from a woman in the street.

It's witnessed by two young women driving past.

They manage to take a photo of the thief before he runs off.

The girls contact the police

and post a picture on the Eccles social media page.

PC Simon Quinn happens to see it on his day off.

Even though I was off duty, because it had happened on my area,

I did feel quite responsible.

The fact that there was somebody running round

stealing property from people.

Simon takes a good look at the thief's face and clothing.

I made it a bit of a personal task to just keep an eye out in the area.

And it's just as well he does, because not long afterwards,

there's a more serious crime committed,

and this time, Shirley is the victim.

It's a week later.

A CCTV camera shows Shirley on her way to the local shops.

Pension day, I was going to the post office.

Further up on the road, the post office manager is sitting outside

his shop in his car when he notices a man hanging around.

Thinking the man's acting suspiciously,

he films him on his phone.

The postmaster, he was parked up

waiting to go to another shop that he owns.

There's been the mobile phone theft

the week before so everyone is on high alert.

He decides to take a mobile phone video of him loitering about.

While this is going on, Shirley has arrived at the shop.

I went in the post office, I got my pension.

When Shirley leaves, she, too, notices the man.

She thinks he's behaving oddly and feels uneasy about him.

So I thought, "Well, I'll stay behind him."

And he disappeared.

So, I passed the shops, and I thought,

"Well, I've got this far, I might as well keep going."

But the man hasn't disappeared, he has just crossed the road.

This shop camera shows him walking very slowly along the street

because he's stalking Shirley.

A few minutes later, she reaches her front door and goes inside.

I took my shoes off, took my coat off and the door went.

To her horror, when Shirley opens the door, it's that same man.

He's followed her home.

So I was closing the door and he was pushing it one way

and I was pushing it another.

It's a terrifying moment.

I was just no contest for him.

The man forces his way in and pushes Shirley against the wall.

He demands money, but Shirley stand up to him.

And I said, "Get out!"

I don't think he was prepared for somebody to say, "Get out."

Shirley bravely resists and he gives up on getting cash,

but then, suddenly, he makes a grab for her neck.

I thought I was going to die...

in my own house at 11 o'clock in the morning.

The man snatches two gold necklaces Shirley's wearing and then leaves.

A shop CCTV camera shows him running away back up the street.

I just had to get him out the house.

Shirley is in a state of shock, but manages to call 999.

While Shirley is talking on the phone,

the CCTV shows the robber turns down a side road.

At the other end of that street, PC Simon Quinn is out on patrol.

News of Shirley's robbery hasn't come over the radio yet.

But he's still on the lookout for the thief who stole the phone

a week earlier.

And when Simon sees a man running towards him,

he looks just like the picture of the phone thief.

I immediately recognised him. His face was the same.

Simon gets out and stops the man.

I asked him if he had any identification.

He handed me a passport.

The man is 26-year-old Aleksandras Bogdanovic.

Because I was happy it was the same male, I subsequently arrested him.

That's for the theft of the phone, but then, over the radio,

Simon hears reports of Shirley's robbery just around the corner.

Could it be the same man?

As we got further information, it became more and more plausible

that the male who I had arrested was the male responsible.

It's an extraordinary turn of events.

A man being arrested for one crime

while he's making his getaway from another.

DC Paul Davies hears about it when he's on his way to the scene.

Quinn shouts up on the radio that this lad has literally

ran into his arms.

Unreal.

Talk about right place at the right time.

They've got their prime suspect.

But he's adamant it's a case of mistaken identity.

Meanwhile, Paul and a forensics team have been to Shirley's house.

Having seen the shock in the lady's face,

I was determined more than ever to get him.

Shirley is shaken after the robbery.

I was frightened.

At night, going to bed, it really is frightening.

Watching back the CCTV, Paul is shocked

by the robber's callous planning.

He's targeted her from the minute he's seen on that junction.

Almost like an animal waiting to prey.

He pulls together the evidence.

The clothes the robber was wearing

when he was arrested match the clothes of the man in the CCTV,

though his face is not clearly visible.

But the postmaster's mobile phone footage does reveal

the robber's face.

It's Bogdanovic.

It is great, it showed his face.

That's how key this footage is.

When I'm interviewing, I can say, "That's you."

And when the forensic team find a footprint in Shirley's garden,

it matches his trainers.

But despite the evidence against him,

he still continues to protest his innocence.

Throughout this, he pleaded not guilty.

He took it all the way to trial.

But finally, in court, when he takes the stand...

He changed his mind after the trial had started and pleaded guilty.

I don't think the judge took kindly to that.

For robbery and theft, Bogdanovic is given 7.5 years in prison.

Thanks to the police working together with the people of Eccles.

Without their help, we wouldn't have got him.

The postmaster and the girls who had the presence of mind to take

a photograph of him,

because that set off the chain of events that led us to him.

I was quite happy on getting him

off the streets and that's something I'm actually quite proud of.

To show their support, Shirley received messages,

flowers and gifts from local people.

The neighbours were lovely. They was. Honest to God.

These girls at the shop here, they sent me this box

with perfume things in, like bath things.

It was just nice of people.

Delivery companies often ask you where

they can leave your parcel if you're not in.

Well, let's hope you don't get this particular courier.

Her idea of a special delivery is rather far from first class.

Expecting a parcel, the house owner has said

if he's out it can be left by the shed.

But this courier doesn't even try the gate.

Instead, she just lobs it over.

Fortunately, it's not fine china.

Even so, the customer's not happy to find his new shoes

lying in the drive and posts this video online.

It gets viewed thousands of times.

Keen to stamp out this sort of thing, the company

apologises to the customer and has sent a refund for the shoes.

As for this careless courier,

she might be in danger of getting the boot.

Coming up...

A burglar thinks stealing from a farm will be easy,

but farmers are used to dealing with rogue animals.

Back to the old rugby days, I rugby-tackled him onto the floor.

One mucky, muddy scuffle later

and this rogue's rounded up and put in a pen.

Most CCTV cameras are in plain sight.

But even so, some criminals are so intent on their crime,

they fail to realise their every move is being recorded.

Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

It's early afternoon.

A man is apparently delivering circulars,

but he's not.

He's a burglar, and what happens next is shocking.

He vaults the gate and breaks in.

You wouldn't believe that somebody could ransack

your house in 12 minutes.

All my underwear and everything thrown out the drawers onto

the floor. It's just horrendous.

But her son posts footage from his cameras on the internet.

And within one week, it had got over 10,000 views,

and I thought, "Somebody has got to know who he is."

One, two...

Stourbridge near Dudley in the West Midlands is home to Anne,

her son Jay, and dog Poppy.

Stourbridge is a lovely area.

It's really nice. Lived here all my life.

They've lived in this particular house for a few years.

Anne goes out to work, but Jay runs his business from home.

Something of a tech expert, he fixes laptops for a living.

I do computer repairs.

Basically, I've been doing it for the last couple of years.

I used to run pubs but there's no money in pubs these days,

so I had to go to something else which I knew how to do. It works OK.

Not long ago, Jay helped his neighbours put up a CCTV system.

Just recently, there has been a lot of break-ins on the area.

Jay's so impressed with the CCTV cameras

he's put in for the neighbours, he decides to get some, too.

Mum thought it was a waste of time and money, basically.

But I've seen the quality of it

and I thought, "I'm going to get myself a system."

And the cameras provide vital evidence

when one day, the house does get raided.

It's early on a Wednesday afternoon.

Anne and Jay have gone with their dog Poppy over to the grandparents'.

We left my nan and grandads'.

On the way back, Mum was running late for work,

so she dropped me off at the top of the road

and then, so I walked down the road.

Jay's been out for a couple of hours.

Since then, the bins have been emptied.

I was getting next door's wheelie bin in and I've looked at my gate.

I could see at ajar a little bit and I was like,

"I haven't left my gate open."

Pushed the gate and I've seen the back door glass smashed.

I was like, "No way."

Shocking.

Jay rushes in.

He has no idea if there's an intruder still inside.

It was a bit of a nervous thing, really.

But I am quite a big lad, so I think he would have

come off a little bit worse than myself, personally,

but it's not nice knowing someone's been in your house.

But the burglar's disappeared.

Jay calls the police, then his mum.

He says, "Mum, we've been broke into."

I went, "You're joking."

Like, you know, you do.

And, "No, we've been broke."

So I drove home. I don't know how I drove home because I was like...

And as I come into the house, glass everywhere

and then looking round the house, you could see my bedroom,

all my drawers had been opened.

All my underwear and everything,

thrown out the drawers onto the floor. It's just horrendous.

Jay goes straight to check his CCTV footage.

Basically, see this chap walking down the road and you can see

my bin's out so he knew nobody was in because you'd get your bin in.

Basically, he cuts across there with a piece of paper in his hand,

like a flyer.

The man knocks on the door and rings the bell.

Once he's sure no-one's home, he goes to the side gate.

Then he takes the jump over the gate. It's a six-foot gate.

Jumps straight over.

Boom.

The back door's locked

so the man looks around for something to smash the window.

First, he picks up a small garden trowel and tries that.

He even picks up the recycling bag to shield

the glass from cutting himself.

But the trowel doesn't work.

He decides to use a paving slab, instead.

From then on, things go more quickly.

Then he tries to do his Jackie Chan impression by trying to break

the slab in half.

That's not having it.

And then whack, whack, whack.

Three smashes, he's in.

You wouldn't believe that somebody could ransack

your house in 12 minutes.

It's just a horrible feeling.

The burglar leaves just a few minutes before Jay returns.

When we calmed down and noticed things had gone,

it was my laptop, my iPad, which my mum and dad had brought me.

And my watch was stolen.

It got no value to it, but it was

bought for me by my late husband, so, that can never be replaced.

The thief has also snatched Jay's laptop, some phones,

cash and some of his customers' equipment, too.

He stole two laptops that I was repairing.

There was stuff on there that you think is going to be safe

which you've lost it for life now if it's not backed-up anywhere.

To make thing worse, Anne and Jay aren't insured against theft.

You just think it's another payment so you let it go.

"It'll never happen to me."

The police arrive, but they find few clues.

Jay decides to start a campaign himself to try to discover

the burglar's identity.

He alerts pawnbrokers in the area to keep watch for the man.

He then posts the footage on the internet.

I thought, "Somebody's got to know who he is."

And, basically, I thought I'd make him that famous,

it'd be hard for him to sell the stuff

and he wouldn't even want to go out the house.

And within one week, it'd got over 10,000 views.

Various names are suggested.

But then the police receive an anonymous phone call with

crucial information.

They got told who it was, they could ID him down to a T.

So then they later arrest him.

He said it wasn't him, to start with.

They show him the CCTV footage and he went, "Can't lie no more.

"It was me. Hands up."

I really was glad when they said that they'd arrested him.

It was like, "Yes!" Definitely.

In court, the burglar is sentenced to four years in prison.

Fortunately, Anne's tablet is recovered,

although their other valuables are still missing.

Jay has now splashed out on a house alarm and even more cameras.

If it wasn't for the cameras, he would have been walking free,

doing other people's houses.

The chap doesn't think about who he's actually hurting.

Could have been an elderly person, yeah.

So it's a good thing that he's banged up now.

And Anne's now a camera convert.

When he first brought the CCTV, I thought, "What a waste of money."

But, oh, my God, it does help.

It was the best thing he's ever brought.

As we've seen,

some burglars will go to great lengths to break into a house.

But most thieves are opportunistic.

There are some simple things we can do to help keep our homes secure.

You need to look at your own home

through the eyes of the thief,

or the burglar.

So, look at it and think,

well, if I had a gravel drive,

would the burglar actually want

people to hear them coming up the path?

There are certain things that

you can do relatively cheaply,

that means the lights will come on,

they'll stay on,

it looks like your house is occupied.

As well as lights that

you can get on a timer switch,

you can also get something that's

a fake TV light and it offers

a flickering light so the person outside thinks that your TV's on

and someone's home.

A burglar will look for any opportunity to pick up items

in your garden that'll help them to force entry to your property.

The last thing they want is to be stopped en route to your home

with the tools to do the job before the crime's been committed.

They will be arrested for going equipped.

What they'll do, is they'll often break into your workshop

or your shed, use the tools from that,

or anything you leave in the garden to break into your property.

So don't give them that opportunity.

Thieves don't just target towns and cities,

they can strike in the countryside, too.

Which is why police and farmers are getting together to use

technology to crack down on rural crime.

Gwent, South Wales.

This man on a push bike is a burglar.

He's riding round the countryside stealing from farms.

Maybe he thinks a remote rural area like this means easy pickings.

But he's about to find out how local farmers

and the police have joined forces to fight crime.

The intelligence coming from farmers,

it's like having 1,000 extra pair of eyes out there.

Andrew has had a tip-off that his farm is the burglar's next target.

Obviously, he has come in with the intent of causing some trouble.

I'm always nervous about my own safety when you come face-to-face

with someone you don't know.

But Andrew has Benson as backup.

And together, they are going to try to stop the intruder

before he strikes again.

The peaceful countryside of Gwent is where local farmer Andrew

grew up, and he has worked on this land most of his life.

Love being outdoors.

The opportunity of a job in the countryside came locally

and I jumped at it.

Eventually bought the grounds about six years ago

and just never looked back.

Absolutely love it here.

Andrew's love of the Welsh countryside isn't the only

thing that runs in his blood.

His family also has a history of law enforcement.

His father was once part of the security team that protected

Prince Charles.

My father was a policeman and my grandfather was

one of the bosses in the Flying Squad in London.

So, we don't like our robbers in our family.

Crime can be a problem in rural areas, not just big cities.

So, some farmers have invested in CCTV and other security systems.

Andrew has trained his dog, Benson, as extra protection.

Benson is a lovable character, but walking around on your own,

you're quite vulnerable.

So if I'm threatened or anything, Benson is there.

He's going to look after me.

And extra help with security is at hand from local

community support officer Allan Mills.

He has a special understanding of rural crime

because he lives on a farm himself.

Living in that background, I can see what's happening on farms.

Now, I can get anything from trout being stolen overnight,

being poached, to a JCB worth £100,000 being stolen.

It could be anything.

It's difficult to police such vast areas,

so the Gwent force has brought in a system called Farm Watch

where police and farmers connect via e-mail and text,

sharing information about local crime and criminals.

Allan is its coordinator.

I think I've got nearly 1,000 farms on Farm Watch.

It's like having 1,000 extra pairs of eyes out there.

Like having an extra 1,000 officers out there on the beat.

And recently, Andrew, Benson and Allan found out

how useful Farm Watch can be.

Early one January morning,

a stranger arrives at a farm near Andrew's.

He rides in on what turns out to be a stolen bike.

He's unaware the farm has CCTV.

And believing there's no-one around, he takes his time,

spending several minutes looking for valuables in these cars.

Finding nothing, he heads towards a stable block,

but that's a mistake because it means he gets noticed.

These cameras, they actually go through to the farmer's phone,

as well, so he can look at this actually live on his phone.

On the other side of the field, the farmer checks his phone

and sees he has an intruder.

He calls 999 and then he sees the man walk out of the stables

wearing his wife's expensive fluorescent riding coat.

This is the part that infuriated the farmer more than anything else,

because he's now got personal.

He's now taken something from his wife.

The burglar leaves,

but a few minutes later, the farmer confronts him off-camera.

The farmer grabs hold of the jacket,

the farmer's got the jacket, then.

The offender makes off.

But the farmer's noticed the thief is heading towards the land

belonging to his neighbour, Andrew.

And Farm Watch goes into action.

Obviously, he'd phoned 999 already.

I need to get in touch with my colleagues.

I need to coordinate them to go to the correct area

and I know he's got to go past Andrew's land.

Allan warns Andrew there's a burglar on the way over.

Obviously, he's not coming to wish you well.

He's coming with the intent of causing some trouble and damage.

Andrew takes Benson with him and goes to investigate.

And his suspicions are confirmed.

He catches the thief in the act of stealing

from one of his outbuildings.

So, at that point I'm thinking,

"Right, how am I going to approach this? What's going to happen here?"

The guy's made an advance towards me,

Benson's pulled out of my hands.

He doesn't want to bite the guy, he wants to make his feelings known.

He can bark, he's got a loud voice.

Confronted by Benson, the burglar spins round

and heads towards Andrew.

I'm a big lad, I used to play rugby at Pill Harriers

which is a real good old club.

Some interesting characters.

So, I've been trained well

and I knew I could get this guy on the floor.

He takes the intruder down, but the thief's not giving up easily.

He's well-built and he's already escaped the clutches of one farmer.

He's got up again and he's run over into this area here.

Back to the old rugby days, I rugby-tackled him onto the floor

and we both ended up in this spot here.

He's kicked off again

and we've both gone over this drop here, 20 foot down.

He's ended up at the bottom with me on top.

Andrew has the man pinned down.

When a colleague arrives on the scene,

Andrew tells his friend to ring Allan and describe exactly where they are.

As minutes go by, Andrew desperately tries to keep hold of the man.

This guy had ten years on me and I was feeling the pace a little bit.

I was trying to puff and blow, but, obviously, I'm a physical

outdoor worker, so I just used my strength just to hold the guy down.

Thankfully, help soon arrives.

The police came, handcuffed the guy.

I've been able to relax and catch my breath back a bit

and I feel everything's in control, then.

Andrew and the burglar are bleeding

and muddy after fighting on the rough ground.

Andrew took a risk, but, thankfully, neither of them

has ended up badly hurt.

What Andy done, although it's highly commendable,

I don't condone it, but he's a physical man with

the benefit of having a guard dog on site.

I know 99.9% of the farmers would do the same thing.

In court, 39-year-old Carl Letman is found guilty of burglary

and theft is and is sentenced to two years, eight months in prison.

The rural crime figures in Gwent have improved after two years

of the Farm Watch scheme.

It's an excellent result

because what it does is shows everybody working together.

We reduced crime now by 27% on rural areas

and this was the main aim, and it just shows what can be achieved.

Andrew's awarded a commendation for his action.

Something his father,

the police protection officer would be proud of.

He'd have thought, "Good, good. Good job done."

That's it for today.

Join us next time when police

and the public catch more criminals red-handed.