Episode 4 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

where the bad guys are getting caught in the act.

-CCTV is 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 comeuppance.

-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 gang of robbers

armed with an arsenal of different weapons

strike terror into the staff of a city's shops.

I was aware that someone had just walked up to me

with a knife in their hand and a balaclava.

They're doing everything they can to basically put fear into people.

They take away thousands of pounds

and leave behind terrified shop staff.

Also today,

Peter comes face-to-face with a shadowy stranger

outside his neighbour's house.

He looked at me and I said, "Are you burgling that house?"

I can't believe I said that.

But the burglar couldn't have foreseen what happens next.

And a camera is set up to keep a watch on the cat

while the owner's away,

but it catches a cat burglar instead.

Bristol.

And an armed gang is on the loose.

They've been raiding convenience stores, terrorising staff.

It was scary.

You know, you don't really know what they're going to do.

The manager had a knife in his face, he was being told,

"I'm going to stab you."

They've also broken into Kirsty's home.

Someone's armed. You're at your most vulnerable.

That's a really scary thing.

The police launch a major investigation,

but catching these criminals will be difficult.

We didn't have any fingerprints and we didn't have any DNA, either.

So, we didn't have a lot to work with.

Like any other city, Bristol has its fair share of crime.

Though serious offences, such as armed robbery, are rare.

But recently, a gang carried out a series of raids

over a terrifying two-and-a-half week period.

It's a Wednesday night in September.

Detective Constable Mai Wong is on duty

when a report comes in of a robbery at a local general store.

I was tasked to go out and investigate.

I went up to the store with crime scene people,

trying to preserve any evidence that might be there.

But the only real evidence they find is a CCTV recording.

It's just before 10.30 in the evening

when three hooded men storm through the door.

All are armed.

One has a large knife.

One, a claw hammer.

The other, a baseball bat.

They demand cash.

They were threatening to stab people,

they'll stab them until they're dead.

A shop assistant goes to push a panic button, but she's not quick enough.

There's a guy with a claw hammer saying,

"I'm going to hurt you with my claw hammer if you touch that button."

The robbers want the code to open the safe.

They march one of the staff into the office.

But he doesn't know the combination.

The robbers don't believe him and punch him in the face.

He was being told, "I'm going to stab you."

He was terrified, basically.

One of the raiders forces one of the assistants to open the till.

They grab cash and cigarettes,

but when they realise they can't open the safe,

the robbers leave with money and goods worth around £1,000.

But above all, there's the emotional and physical cost to their victims.

He had a cut to the mouth area where he'd been punched.

It has a massive impact on him.

Although it's a couple of minutes for these guys to walk in,

he's going to think about it over and over again,

replaying what had happened to him and what could have happened.

The robbers frightened and intimidated the staff,

but were careful not to leave any evidence behind.

Although on the CCTV it looks like they've got bare hands,

they've actually got gloves on them.

There were going to be no fingerprints,

we didn't have any DNA, either.

So, we didn't have a lot to work with.

And five days later, the gang strikes again.

Another armed robbery.

9.30pm. This motorcyclist pulls up outside another store.

He flashes a signal.

Two men with hoods emerge from the shadows and join him.

They burst into the shop armed with two knives and a baseball bat.

One assistant is forced to the floor.

Her colleague is taken to open the safe.

She's made to hold a bag while a robber fills it with cash.

She then has to empty the tills at knife-point.

The gang make off with over £1,500

and leave behind two more traumatised victims.

They're doing everything they can to basically put fear into people.

This time, it's two knives,

so perhaps you could say that they've upped the ante.

Once again, no faces and no fingerprints.

But this time, Mai finds some clues on the CCTV footage.

Really clearly here, you've got the motorcycle helmet,

you've got his distinctive jacket and you've got the knife.

Now, that knife is very distinctive in the colour of the handle

and the type of knife it is.

Images of the clothing and weapons

are circulated around the force.

And it's not long before there's a breakthrough.

A week later, police officers stop 24-year-old Levin Cook,

who's driving a car on a provisional licence.

He has a passenger with him - 21-year-old Lee Humphreys.

They seize the car,

because he shouldn't actually have been driving the car as he was.

And they ask him,

"Is there anything that you want to take from your car?"

He starts to look a bit nervous at this,

so they get a little bit suspicious.

"Why doesn't he want us to look in the car?"

There's a very good reason.

When they open the boot, the officers find weapons and items of clothing.

One of the weapons... was a baseball bat.

It matches the CCTV.

A knife is found. Now, it's quite distinctive.

The handle is a bright green colour, which matches this knife.

They also find a claw hammer,

a stripy facemask,

and a bag that looks familiar.

The pair are arrested, but deny everything.

The seized weapons and clothing match those captured on CCTV.

But with no forensics or DNA,

Mai can't actually prove that Cook and Humphreys are two of the robbers.

Although there's a lot of circumstantial evidence

which suggests that they are the people responsible,

we're unsure if we've got enough

to say that they are definitely the people there.

Mai continues the investigation and the hunt for the third robber.

Cook and Humphreys are released on bail.

The car they were driving stays with the police.

Five days later, there's a new development.

A local resident, Kirsty, drives home from a job interview

and parks outside her house as usual.

But later on, in the early hours of the morning,

when Kirsty, her boyfriend and their pet dogs are all asleep,

Kirsty is suddenly woken up by a noise outside.

I could hear my engine...

I thought it was my engine, my car engine, pulling away.

She looks out to see her car's been stolen.

It's just one of those heart-sinking moments, you think...

no, it really has gone.

It's not just the loss of the vehicle that's upsetting.

All the important documents she'd taken to the job interview

are still in the car and have been stolen, too.

Things like passport, driving licence, master certificates,

literally all gone.

And half of it won't be able to be replaced.

Then she makes an even more chilling discovery.

Someone's been in her house.

The lock on the front door has been forced.

Her car keys and her boyfriend's wallet have been stolen.

I've been sleeping, the door was ajar.

They've had to walk past where I was asleep.

I didn't hear them. Two big dogs didn't hear them.

It's a really creepy thought

to think that someone's maybe looked at you.

You're at your most vulnerable.

That's a really scary thing,

knowing that someone has been in the house with you.

And the break-in was for a sinister purpose.

Kirsty's car is used as the getaway car for the next robbery.

The gang strike again

and shop worker Amy has to face a frightening ordeal.

It was scary, yeah. You don't really know what they're going to do.

They were quite unpredictable.

A window smashes in a cul-de-sac

and a neighbour dares to go and look.

Some people call it stupid going out in the first place.

Maybe, but I couldn't sit back and do nothing.

And a man who's oh, so careful with his parking,

but couldn't care less where he dumps his rubbish.

And later, he's back, he's changed his car,

but he hasn't changed his dirty habit.

However, this driver, who likes to fill his boots with garbage,

is about to be given the boot himself.

But first, a camera set up to watch cats catches a large human rat.

The owner of this house has hired a cat-sitting agency

to keep an eye on his cat while he's away.

They set up a camera link to watch the cat...

but get a nasty shock

when they see a very different kind of animal creeping up the stairs.

A sinister intruder who's carrying a large knife.

Thank heavens there's no-one in the house apart from the cat,

and they have sensibly scarpered.

But this cat burglar isn't interested in cats.

He makes off with a valuable computer.

But he clearly has cat's eyes himself.

As he leaves, he spots the camera.

He grabs it to destroy the evidence.

But, fortunately, the pictures have already been recorded

and they're handed over to the police,

who release the pictures to the media.

Pretty soon, the cat's out of the bag.

Someone identifies the thief and he's arrested.

So, this particular cat is now on his way to the doghouse.

The police advise us against taking the law into our own hands,

but the watchful eyes and ears of our neighbours

can sometimes provide the police with some very useful information.

Mill Hill, London,

and a night to remember for the residents of this close.

I thought, this is really like a sort of Boy's Own story.

It's a snowy winter's evening.

A man leaves his car at the top of the cul-de-sac

and walks in towards the houses.

But he doesn't live here. He's a burglar.

Yet he's about to come face-to-face

with someone who does live here - Peter.

I said, "Are you burgling that house?"

Only Peter would feel that it was up to him

to try and apprehend the burglar.

Peter puts himself in danger to defend his neighbour's property.

This guy is bigger than me, fitter than me. I could be in trouble here.

Peter and his family

have lived in this quiet cul-de-sac in Mill Hill for 25 years.

I chose to live here

because it's a nice, leafy part of north-west London.

I have a very good relationship with my neighbours. We get on so well.

It's a lovely road to live in.

One of the neighbours who's lived here nearly as long as Peter

is Jilly.

Peter's quite a character. He's a great chap for having a go.

And he's a one-off.

He's completely - dare I use the words - obsessed with CCTV cameras.

Peter became interested in security cameras after he retired.

He took up a part-time job as a CCTV operator

and found he was a natural at spotting villains.

I was catching more and more people

and I was getting such a buzz out of it.

He enjoyed the work so much, he installed his own system at home.

You know, just to reassure myself

that if we found our car door open in the middle of the night,

I could review my cameras.

The cameras have never caught any evidence of wrongdoing until...

one dark January evening

when this car is driven into the quiet cul-de-sac.

Having circled around, it parks.

A man gets out and takes care to lock the doors.

Perhaps he's worried there's a thief about.

Then he walks along the pavement past Peter's house.

A few moments later, Peter's daughter hears a disturbing sound.

GLASS SMASHES

"Dad," she said, "I've just heard a window break."

She said, "And I've looked out and there's a strange man outside."

Before calling the police,

Peter thinks it's best to go and see what's going on.

I need to go out and have a look.

I'll put my coat on and I'll walk up the road.

I won't get involved in anything.

But his intention to avoid confrontation doesn't last long.

He sees a silhouetted figure on his neighbour Jilly's driveway.

He's at my next door neighbour's window,

he's got the window wide open, the glass is clearly broken.

Unfortunately, he saw me as I saw him.

Peter stands his ground.

And I said, "Are you burgling that house?"

I can't believe I said that. But I said, "Are you burgling...?"

I said, "You are, aren't you? You're a burglar."

Straight face-to-face.

I'm six foot one and a half. This guy was above me.

And then I realised that I could be in trouble here.

But Peter must look scarier than he thinks.

He suddenly jumped up in the air, throwing his arms out.

It was surreal.

And he ran.

So, I started to chase after him.

Peter stays hot on the burglar's heels.

He runs after him down the road,

while at the same time phoning for help.

I'm trying to ring 999, at the same time, keep up with him.

And I'm not a particularly fast sprinter any more.

And I looked up and I couldn't see him. And I was so determined.

I managed to stop a car.

And I said to him,

"I'm chasing a guy that's attempted to burgle my neighbour."

He said, "Get in."

The pair set off after the man.

Meanwhile, Jilly has arrived home from work.

Her headlights illuminate the damage to her home.

When I saw the glass and the shattered window, I thought,

"My goodness me, what has happened?"

And my immediate thought is, "Are the burglars inside?"

I was on my own, the house was in darkness.

I might disturb them. I might get hurt.

Scared, Jilly stays in her car while she works out what to do.

And then a face appears at her window.

But it's a friendly face.

There was our lovely neighbour Peter.

The burglar got away, but Peter's able to reassure Jilly.

She was so shocked. She said, "We've been burgled."

I went, "No, you haven't. No, you haven't."

I said, "I went out and challenged the guy..."

I said, "..and he's run off."

The police arrive within minutes and escort Jilly into her house.

There was glass inside, but everywhere,

huge mess,

which we could clear up once the fingerprinting people had been.

Peter goes to check his CCTV.

I didn't expect to find anything on it.

I said, "But it's worth having a look."

He casts his trained eyes over the footage

and tracks the thief's movements.

He's broken a window and he knows he's made a noise.

So, he walks off. He's having a look around.

Making sure nobody's heard it.

Nobody's come out, so he comes back.

He does the same thing again.

The man checks for a second time that nobody has heard the window smash.

Then he goes back to burgle the house,

and that's when he's confronted by Peter.

But the vital thing the footage shows is the would-be burglar's vehicle.

Couldn't believe he actually parked his car

outside my other neighbour's house.

It was clearly him.

So, straightaway, I looked out the window, the car is still there.

The police have left Jilly's house,

but Peter phones and tells them about the car.

So, they said, "Right, if you could...

"We'll send officers. If you could get yourself out of sight."

Which Peter does, though not for long.

Afraid the man will return before the police arrive,

he calls on another neighbour and, together, they come up with a plan.

We decided if we let his tyres down

then he really couldn't drive off

and there's every chance the police will catch him.

And while we're letting the second tyre down,

I had a phone call and it was a police officer,

and he said, "Mr Reynolds, where are you?"

I said, "Well, just letting his tyres down at the moment."

He went, "Yeah, we're sitting watching you."

He said, "We're in an unmarked car."

He said, "It would be more helpful if you actually went out of sight."

But it turns out that keeping watch on the car isn't necessary.

Because a man walks into a police station to report a stolen car.

And it's this car.

The man is the would-be burglar and he's promptly arrested.

At last, Peter can relax.

And I think, in fact, Peter actually thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing

and was sorry that he couldn't be more part of it

and the chap didn't come back for his car.

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

and has to complete a programme of unpaid work.

Peter's detective work paid off

and he's awarded a Borough Commander's Commendation

for his efforts.

Keeping a burglar in sight wasn't particularly brave.

Some people call it stupid going out in the first place.

Maybe, but I couldn't sit back and do nothing.

Jilly is certainly grateful that her neighbour chose to intervene.

If Peter had not been next door...

No, I don't like to think of the consequences, actually.

Thank goodness for Peter and thank goodness for neighbourly neighbours.

We can't always rely on having someone like Peter living next door.

So, what should we do

if we spot someone acting suspiciously in our neighbourhood?

You should never confront an offender,

because their behaviour is often unpredictable.

They're full of adrenaline,

they're just in the middle of something they know is wrong,

could potentially get caught.

Your safety is much more important.

If you can see what's happening and they can't see you,

that's a good place to be.

Get on the phone to the police

and describe exactly what you're seeing.

What height, weight, hair colour, what build,

what kind of clothing that they've got on,

because this is something that could be picked up through CCTV.

And note down what direction that they've left in.

The police could cut them off at the end of the street

before they've even got out of the area.

We really do need to check alarms out when we hear them,

whether it be a premises or a vehicle.

We just need to make sure that everything's in order.

If you do come home and you've had your property broken into,

then please take the advice of the people on the end of the phone

that you're talking to, who'll tell you,

look, don't touch anything, keep away from it,

you've got a smashed window, dirty footprints on your carpet.

We'll get our crime scene investigators there

as soon as we possibly can, gather the vital evidence

and hopefully help us to catch the bad guys.

Now, this next chap

must know the value of sharp-eyed council CCTV operators,

because he leaves them an extra tip.

Salford, it's just gone 4pm,

and this driver is making a bit of a meal of parking his van.

And it's not just his parking that's a bit suspect.

Because he now starts illegally throwing trash

out the back of the van and into the bushes.

When he's done,

he manages to drive off a darned sight quicker than he drove in.

Now, rubbish attracts rubbish, it seems.

Because later that evening, another vehicle parks up

and this driver, too, starts chucking out junk.

And bizarrely,

he pushes the waste dumped earlier further into the undergrowth.

But it's all caught on this camera, and when council investigators

check out these two cars' numberplates with the DVLA,

well, guess what.

It turns out both vehicles are registered to the very same person,

a local businessman who sells mobile phone accessories.

But now he's found a new twist to that old rule of business -

where there's muck, there's money.

Because his mucking about

has lost him a whopping £1,400 in costs and compensation.

Hopefully, he'll dispose of his rubbish properly in future

and stick to using the black car.

He seems better at driving that one.

Back to Bristol,

where a gang of armed robbers has raided two shops in less than a week.

But DC Mai Wong is on the trail.

The trio of robbers have hit two convenience stores

just five days apart, terrorising the staff.

He was terrified, basically.

I mean, he had a knife in his face, it was waved in his face.

He was being told, "I'm going to stab you."

Two men, Cook and Humphreys, were arrested

after a stash of weapons was found in the boot of their car.

But without enough proof to hold them, they were released on bail.

Mai and the team are trying to find more evidence.

Five days later, a nearby resident, Kirsty,

has her house broken into and her car stolen.

It's knowing that you've been asleep

and someone's been in the house with you.

That's a really scary thing.

The very next evening,

a stolen car is spotted by an off-duty police officer.

The three men inside it catch his eye

because they are behaving suspiciously.

They all had their hoods up, so they kept their faces covered.

And he thought, "This isn't right. Something's about to happen."

As the off-duty officer phones to alert his police colleagues,

the car drives off.

In fact, it's heading to a nearby area of Bristol

where it pulls up outside a convenience store.

Inside, shop supervisor Amy is working the late shift.

Well, it was really my first shift as being supervisor,

so I was in charge and I was working with one other colleague.

Three men burst in, all carrying knives.

I was aware that someone had just walked up to me

with a knife in their hand and a balaclava

and I realised what situation I was in.

Two robbers grab cigarettes and force Amy's colleague to open the till

while Amy is taken at knife-point to the office safe.

It was scary, yeah. You don't really know what they're going to do.

They were quite unpredictable.

Amy struggles to open the safe.

My hands were shaking a little bit. I was a bit shaky, yeah.

After the safe is emptied of cash,

Amy is ordered back out to join her colleague and the robbers leave.

And we just sort of, you know, took in what had just happened.

Amy's shaken. Her colleague's traumatised.

She broke down a little bit, so I went round to give her a hug.

But, yeah, she was pretty shaken after they'd left.

As the robbers attempt their getaway, Amy phones the police.

But units are already closing in.

Because the off-duty police officer said,

"Something's about to go down,"

people have started to make their way to that area.

A helicopter goes up and starts to track the car.

The robbers realise they are not going to outrun a helicopter.

They stop the car and split up

to make it harder to catch up with them.

But now there are a lot of officers flooding the area

and two of the robbers are captured.

They are familiar faces.

It's Levin Cook and Lee Humphreys again.

The police find the stolen goods from Amy's shop dumped in a field nearby.

And we recover the cigarettes, the cash, and the clothing

which is identical to the clothing that's worn in the robbery.

This time, Cook and Humphreys have been caught red-handed.

But there's still their accomplice, the third man, on the loose.

We've got two people in custody.

I know that I've got to look for another person.

So, I start to look at links.

Who have police officers seen these boys with?

Build up a case for a third person to be arrested.

One person who emerges is 18-year-old Bradley Johnson.

So, I started to look at his social media accounts

and some of his friends' social media accounts.

In various pictures,

Johnson is seen in similar clothing to the robberies

and can be linked to Cook and Humphreys.

He's arrested and his phone seized.

And on this mobile phone,

we found a picture of him on a scooter

in very distinctive clothing.

He is wearing the crash helmet from the second robbery

and he's wearing the clothing from the CCTV throughout the robberies.

They've caught the third man.

Since the start of the robberies just over two weeks ago,

Mai and her team have collected a large amount of evidence.

From having nothing, we've then got clothing,

we've got CCTV, we've got weapons,

and we've got them almost caught at the scene of the third robbery.

Faced with the evidence,

the robbers have no choice but to plead guilty in court.

Johnson is sentenced to four years.

Humphreys gets five years and seven months.

And Cook is locked away for six years and eight months.

They're now safely off the streets.

They've been put in prison,

which is a really good result for the victims of this

who've been affected by it for months.

We've managed to put three really nasty robbers away

for some period of time.

I was glad that they got what was coming to them

and I felt that they got the sentences they deserved.

And there's some good news for Kirsty. She got her car back.

And although her important documents weren't recovered,

she was offered the job that she'd gone for on the day of the burglary.

Yeah, I was really, really pleased, actually, that I got the job,

which meant that I didn't have to try and get

all the documents together within a week or something like that

for the next interview.

So, that was the saving grace, yeah.

That's it for today.

Join us next time,

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