Episode 6 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.

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 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...

This man's a jewellery snatcher,

not just once, or twice or ten times.

So far, he's got away with nearly 40 snatch-and-grabs

from jewellery shops.

It was in excess of ?200,000 of thefts.

This thief takes what he can

but he also leaves a couple of things behind -

clues for the police.

Also today, look out -

there's a thief in the kitchen...in broad daylight.

My goodness.

To have her look in my eye, talking to me,

knowing she was stealing from my mother...

Absolutely can't get over that.

I just don't know how she did it.

And... Who's a good boy, then?

Well, not this guy.

They're not his dogs and this is not his house.

The City of London.

A customer in a jewellery shop appears to be tempted by a watch...

And he is...

But he just doesn't intend to pay for it.

This man's a one-man crimewave,

stealing over and over and over again, smooth talking his way in.

He's very convincing. I think he would fool anybody.

And they're happy to pass him over items worth thousands

and thousands of pounds.

But he makes mistakes, leaving behind valuable clues.

Eureka, the feel-good moment,

to actually identify one particular individual.

The City of London is the UK's most important financial district.

With so much money around, it's not surprising that the City

also has a number of high-end jewellery shops.

But they occasionally attract the wrong sort of client.

It's early summer when Detective Constable Geoff Holbrook

gets a call about an attempted jewellery snatch.

I received a report of an incident that had occurred

at a jewellers in Fleet Street in the City of London.

The jewellers had CCTV which covered the whole incident in its entirety.

Geoff and his colleagues collect the recorded footage of the incident,

unaware at this stage that this is the start

of an extensive investigation.

It's just before lunchtime when a customer walks in.

His demeanour is to gain the trust of the staff there.

He's put his bag out. He's...playing with his wallet.

Relaxed and chatting, he asks to look at a gold chain.

He doesn't look like a person that is there to steal

or there to run away.

Claiming he needs to check the window display,

the man is buzzed out by the sales assistant.

He returns a few moments later.

At this point, the male can be seen.

He opens his bag and he gets some paper out.

He's just placed one of the bits of paper to his side

and just leaves it on the table.

Suddenly the man changes his mind about wanting a necklace

and asks to see a watch that's worth ?12,500.

And that's the watch that he eventually tries to steal

and then what you will see is the male stand up

cos he says he wants to look at some cufflinks.

You can see him gesturing towards his cuff there.

The cufflinks are also in the front window display.

The man asks for the door to be opened again so he can take a look,

but the shop assistant is beginning to have his doubts.

I think it's at this point that he's getting a bit suspicious.

The man's been in there 50 minutes

and he's looking at too many different items.

You will see the member of staff puts his left hand on the release

button but he's also pulling the tray away.

The salesman's instinct is correct.

It's all over in a flash.

The would-be thief escapes without any loot thanks to the

quick reactions of the salesman.

But remember that piece of paper.

In the thief's rush to escape, he's left it behind on the desk.

It's valuable evidence.

I think he's either forgotten that he's put it there or he's

in such a hurry to get away because he needs to get out that door,

he lets it go - he's going to be locked inside.

Hoping to identify the man, Geoff takes stills from the video

and circulates them to colleagues.

He sends the piece of paper away for forensic analysis.

The very next day, Geoff's colleague, PC Mike O'Sullivan,

is on duty when news of another jewellery snatch comes in.

We received a report of a high-value theft from jewellers

on Liverpool Street.

A man had grabbed a diamond ring worth ?4,500.

It had been very clear from the description that was given

and the way the male acted

that this was the same male as the day before.

Straight away, we knew we were dealing with a serial offender.

It is now a police priority to stop this man,

not just because of the goods stolen,

but because of the effects on shop staff.

Staff were quite shaken, simply just the way the male had acted,

almost like a confidence trickster.

Mike visits the shop where the ring's been snatched.

Small jewellers... It's a massive loss to them.

But the culprit has been careless.

Mike finds some potential evidence that may show fingerprints.

One was a counter where he'd had his hand before he ran out.

Er...another was a jacket that he'd left behind

and a rucksack containing a drinks bottle.

And in one of the jacket pockets,

Mike finds a SIM card for a mobile phone.

I took that it straight back to the office

and used a special computer

and it'll give you the telephone number

that the SIM is associated with.

It's a breakthrough in the investigation.

With the number, Mike can find out from the phone's network

provider who the thief's been talking to.

The rest of the seized evidence is sent to forensics for analysis.

Later...

The jewellery snatcher continues his rampage,

striking again in London's Square Mile...

On the third offence, ?7,500 worth of jewellery.

..and again.

On the fourth offence,

he gets away with ?21,500 worth of necklaces

and this man needs to be stopped.

Now, "Every dog has its day"

may or may not be true

but here's a shaggy dog story that really takes the biscuit.

The woman who owns this house has fixed up a camera to keep

an eye on her two young dogs while she's at work.

Normally, it's just unexciting shots of her two pooches mooching.

But today, she gets a sudden shock.

There's a stranger in her house and she's horrified to watch

on live video as he casually goes walkies around her house.

Uh-oh... It looks like he's seen the camera.

But hang on, what's he doing?

He's feeding her dogs treats!

Oh, yes. This fun-loving criminal plays with his new best friends.

OK, these aren't the greatest guard dogs,

but while they keep the intruder amused,

their owner has time to call the police,

who soon surround the property.

The cops send in a scary police Alsatian

and the intruder is hounded out

into the arms of the police.

He's well and truly collared.

So, as break-ins go, this one's been a bit of a dog's dinner.

Coming up...

Hard to believe anybody would miss THIS,

but when a pub gargoyle is taken, the owners are outraged.

The barefaced cheek of it.

So, they turn to social media to try and get their gnome back home.

Keeping ourselves from being caught out by crooks and conmen

is a matter of staying on our guard,

but looking after the interests of others is a bit more difficult,

particularly when they're vulnerable.

You don't want another one?

These pictures are from hidden cameras in a South London kitchen.

This carer is making lunch for elderly grandmother Monica

in the room next door.

Monica's cashbox is also in this cupboard.

Money's been disappearing, so Monica's daughter Anne-Marie

has set up a camera to find out what's going on

and she makes a shocking discovery.

I didn't think for a minute it was somebody who had our trust

and I thought I heard her take the cashbox.

And then I thought... "It's her."

I was in shock.

Anne-Marie thinks she's found the thief.

But can she get the proof?

Monica is a sprightly 91-year-old, but suffers from Alzheimer's.

Daughter Anne-Marie feels it's important to tell their story.

My mum's lovely. She's a very kind person, very generous.

She loves going out, actually.

We take her out to the theatre quite a lot.

She really, really enjoys musical theatre.

Monica grew up in Manchester

and she met Tom through friends at a church social club.

He always made her laugh a lot.

They fell in love and married after the war.

They went on to have four children and six grandchildren

until, after 60 years of marriage, Tom passed away at the age of 90.

When my dad died, it was obviously a shock for everybody.

Erm... But really, what we didn't realise was he'd been covering up

quite a lot about my mum's illness and so that's when

we went to the doctor and eventually she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.

Monica moves to a sheltered flat in London

so she can live near Anne-Marie and some of her other children.

It was just suitable all round, so much as we could all see her more

regularly than we would have done if she'd have stayed where she was.

But they can't be with their mum all the time,

so they arrange visits from carers through an agency.

The carers basically are there to keep an eye on her, really,

and to give her her medicine, so they will come and have a chat

with her and make her a sandwich, make her some food

and the housekeeping as well.

The family also take care of Monica's day-to-day expenses.

Money is kept in a locked cashbox in the kitchen cupboard.

The key is kept nearby,

as the box is topped up by the family to ?60 a week.

We'd send each other e-mails because we don't always see each other,

usually to say, "I spent ?30 on food, groceries,

"I bought this, this and this, there's ?20 left in the box."

The money doesn't always add up, but at first, Anne-Marie isn't worried.

We wouldn't always send the e-mail and we'd forget

or one e-mail might have said, "There's ?20 left."

And I would check it and look and say,

"Oh, there's only ?10 left."

So, my sister might say, "Oh, did I say 20? Maybe I meant 10."

And then there would be a complete confusion.

As time goes by, she notices that cash is regularly missing.

I started going back through e-mails and checking

and slowly there seemed to be a little bit of a pattern forming

that money was actually going.

It's an upsetting moment.

I was distraught.

I just thought, "How can anybody

"come into this lovely old lady's house

"and steal from her?"

I didn't feel like we were protecting her enough.

I think that's what made me upset.

Anne-Marie is sure an outsider must be responsible.

I didn't think for a minute it was somebody who had our trust

and if someone is going into my mum's flat

or if my mum is letting somebody in,

we need to know and so that's

when we started looking into the idea of hidden cameras.

She phones an expert for advice.

I actually burst out crying and the person on the end of the line

calmed me down and said,

"Don't worry. We'll catch them."

She doesn't want to upset her mum by telling her about her

suspicions, so investigates in secret.

First, she hides a camera in a bunch of flowers on top of the fridge,

but unfortunately, it doesn't work.

So, I tried it again and there was nothing and it was just very

frustrating, yet money was going during this time.

Next, she tries a different camera disguised as a small battery charger.

It triggers when it senses motion and also records sound.

She hides it in the cupboard containing the cashbox.

I soon realised actually that it probably wasn't the best

location for it,

but the first indication of who this might be

was when it was in the cupboard

and the cupboard opened and I saw the face of the carer.

Almost straight away, the carer looks directly at the camera

but doesn't think anything of it.

But on the recording, there is a distinctive sound.

BRIEF RATTLE

I thought I heard her take the cashbox

and then I sort of thought... "It's her."

The metallic rattle of the cashbox being moved

provides Anne-Marie with her prime suspect.

She checks back over dates when money seemed to go missing.

Her suspicions are confirmed.

My goodness.

I...I was in shock, really.

I was just completely in shock,

to actually know someone.

To have her look in my eye, talking to me,

knowing she was stealing from my mother,

absolutely can't get over that.

I just don't know how she did it.

But the sound of the cashbox opening isn't enough

evidence for the police to bring charges yet.

Anne-Marie needs pictures of the carer stealing money.

She is determined to catch the thief, not just for her mum's sake.

I wanted it stopped.

I didn't want her going into anybody else's house

and stealing or taking or taking advantage.

Over the next few frustrating weeks, Anne-Marie moves the camera

around the kitchen hunting for the right angle.

There were different bits of clips that didn't show up

in the right position, but I kept hearing my dad's voice

all the way through this, saying, don't give up.

Just carry on, you'll get her.

And she does.

The camera is sitting on top of the fridge.

The carer's making a sandwich for Monica.

She rips the clingfilm with her teeth and delivers lunch.

A moment later, she's back

and rummages for the key that opens the cashbox.

Chatting to Monica at the same time, she takes out the box,

unlocks it and steals a ?10 note.

She puts the box and key back where she found them.

And stuffs the money into her top.

Finally, Anne-Marie has the evidence she needs.

I did sort of go, "Yes, we've got her!"

I was appalled, but actually I was quite relieved

because I was exhausted.

The police watch the incriminating video and arrest the woman.

She denies everything.

Then they showed her the footage

and that's when she went into panic mode,

saying, yes, I had to get the client some goods.

They said, OK, which shop did you have to go to?

She said, "Oh, I think it was Sainsbury's".

They said, "OK, we'll get the CCTV footage from Sainsbury's

"at this time and it will show you".

Then she cried again and realised basically she'd been rumbled.

In court, the woman is found guilty of two counts of theft and sentenced

to do unpaid community work

and pay ?700 in costs and compensation.

The sentence brings some relief to Anne-Marie after a difficult year.

It's been a bit of a rollercoaster.

It wasn't a pleasant time to go through, but when he said guilty,

that was it, that was exactly what I wanted to hear.

Monica now has some new carers and the family are very happy with them.

She's got some absolutely lovely carers.

They are aware of what's happened.

I made them aware of what's happened and they are glad that I did that

because they say people like this person gave them all a bad name.

So the best outcome of this is

one person won't be taking advantage of old people any more.

Yeah, it was worth it.

The thing is, you can't go through life mistrusting everyone, can you?

It's hard to know where to draw the line and what to watch out for.

You should always trust your instincts.

If you're a little bit uncertain about someone

that you've got in your home,

then there might be a good reason for that.

If you do think things are going missing, make a note,

keep a record of them and that will help the police as well

as anybody else who is looking into any suspicions you may have.

When you get someone knocking at the door, you've got time

to check the references, but you've also got time to send them away.

Think about it.

A good conman will give you the telephone number of a friend

or family member, so do a bit of research first.

If you don't feel able to do it yourself,

perhaps use a friend who is good on social media to find out

who that referee is and that it is a reputable person.

But it's also important to listen to your family, friends, neighbours,

if they are a little bit uncertain about these people as well.

If the person is being really pushy,

then they're probably not the person you want to employ.

Back to the City of London now,

where police are looking for a thief

who's stolen jewellery worth over ?200,000.

DC Geoff Holbrook and PC Mike O'Sullivan

are hunting a serial jewellery thief.

Pretending to be a customer, he then snatches and runs.

He's come in, he's engaging with staff and gaining their trust.

But the police are on his trail.

The thief has made mistakes.

He leaves behind paper at one of the crime scenes and a bottle

and a jacket at the second.

A mobile phone SIM card is discovered

in the pocket of the jacket.

The evidence is sent to forensics

for analysis by Paul Dainty and his team.

First, they work on the piece of paper.

The technicians subject it to a number of chemical treatments

to actually make those invisible fingerprints become visible.

We found the suspect had left some trace evidence.

His sweat had been absorbed back into the paperwork

which revealed his fingerprints to us.

A positive result.

They compare them to prints from the second crime scene

found on the shop's glass counter.

And the plastic bottle.

It turns out all the marks are from the same fingers.

Eureka!

That's the feel-good moment, that's where we think, actually,

we're going to be able to do some good here.

Running the prints through the police database,

they get the match they hoped for.

The suspect has been arrested by the police before

and now they have a name -

27-year-old Jermaine Fofana.

So we'd pass information to the investigating officers

and when we do get a positive result, we can't wait to tell them.

Geoff and Mike get the news.

So now we've got a name, which is fantastic news for us.

The problem now being, we don't know where this person is.

Fofana has no fixed address in London.

He's only visible when he raids a shop

and leaves his image behind on the CCTV footage.

This shop in the City is his next target.

He's doing the same thing.

He's come in, he's engaging with staff, gaining their trust.

The shop has an open front door for a quick escape.

He gets out four items of jewellery and places them on the tray

on the counter there and this is in excess of ?7,500 worth of items.

A member of staff will go away from where he's standing

and then you'll see that he just grabs the item,

turns his back and runs.

And he vanishes with thousands of pounds' worth of jewellery.

Another day and here he is again

in another City jewellery shop.

On the fourth and final offence in the City,

he gets away with ?21,500 worth of necklaces.

But the police are closing in.

A mobile phone SIM card that Mike found at the second crime scene

helps the detectives to narrow their search.

The service provider gave us

a list of phone calls that this phone had been calling.

Through further interrogation of those numbers,

we were able to get locations for them

based on the calls he's been making and where he's making them to.

Those locations are dotted around the rest of London

where Fofana has been raiding yet more shops.

Hence why we called upon our colleagues

in the Metropolitan Police to assist in that.

The net is tightening.

Officers investigate each address.

Then they strike lucky.

A location is identified through one of the numbers,

so officers went to that address and they essentially staked it out.

They were sat outside, on the hope that he actually turned up.

And lo and behold, he does actually attend and is arrested.

They've got him.

Fofana eventually owns up to many more crimes across Greater London.

Approximately 40 offences.

And it was in excess of ?200,000 that he had been able to steal.

In court, Fofana is sentenced to 5? years in prison.

Police haven't yet recovered all the jewellery, but they hope to.

And meanwhile, they are pleased that a prolific thief is

now off the streets. For us, this was a great result.

What seemed like just a small, isolated incident

had obviously grew to a much larger, broader scale of thefts that

were occurring, so for the police, it was a great result.

Everywhere you look these days, you see people posting messages

and texts on their phones.

You see, social media is a great way to spread news fast,

particularly if you've lost property, an animal...

or even a gargoyle.

The pretty village of Hawarden, in the Welsh countryside, provides

a picturesque backdrop...to something a little grotesque,

when one day this gargoyle, affectionately known as Julian,

is abducted.

I thought, "You cheeky sod."

I thought, "That's ridic... That's just pure theft."

But the ugly deed is caught on camera and the owners decide to launch

a social media campaign to find who took their gnome away from home.

The power of social media is phenomenal.

Stuart and his business partner, also, mmm, Stuart,

took over and refurbished the Crown and Liver in Hawarden six years ago.

It's a bit of a different pub, really.

Everyone's welcome, as long as everyone's well-behaved.

The two Stus have updated the menu,

the decor and the technology,

including a CCTV system.

Our CCTV has become my infatuation.

We started out with two cameras and a nasty little monitor,

to what we've got now, which is a 25-camera system.

And they've set about raising their online profile.

Social media plays a massive, important part in what we do.

We try to put ourselves out there as being a fun and decent venue.

And to help them, they've hired some highly skilled staff,

including, as their new head of entertainment, Julian.

He was found at a shop down the road.

On a shelf, on his own, he looked a bit sorry for himself

so we decided to purchase him. It was about ten quid,

and it was at a time when we were sort of separating from a partner

that had been involved with us, who wanted to move on to other things.

And it sort of reminded us of him, so that's why we bought it.

Julian fulfils various roles in the pub,

some more successfully than others.

Well, gargoyles are supposed to ward off bad spirits, but Julian is quite

partial to the odd tipple, and I've never seen him ward off any spirits.

The customers love him. Julian is a bit of a character.

You often see people having their picture taken with it,

or taking it into the toilets, it's been known before.

Girls, mainly.

Being made of solid concrete, he's best at being a doorman.

Well, doorstop, actually.

And that's the task he's putting his full weight behind on one

ill-fated Friday night.

A few hours into the evening,

a customer notices that the front door is shut.

So we went to investigate it and realised Julian had gone missing.

We thought it was a prank.

You know, we're going to get a ransom note,

we're going to find it on a beach in Majorca, or something ridiculous.

But three days go by and there's no news.

So Stuart turns to his extensive CCTV system.

He watches the footage from the night Julian disappears.

It's 7:20 when this man with a small dog walks into the doorway.

The dog is an innocent party, so we've also obscured ITS identity.

The man looks at his phone, then stealthily gives Julian

a nudge with his foot, presumably to check how much he weighs.

After another good study of his phone to make sure the street's clear,

he wrestles the defenceless little fellow into his clothing...

..and disappears.

Stuart's gobsmacked. I thought, "You cheeky sod."

I thought, "That's ridic... That's just pure theft."

That is the barefaced cheek of it.

Now he's figured out what's happened,

he acts quickly to try and get the word out.

All I did was film it with my phone

and quickly put it out on to social media.

The video instantly makes an impact.

And the community felt really strongly about it.

And whether it's ?10 or ?1,000, it's still theft,

and it's somebody else's. And it took 20 minutes to get an answer,

20 minutes for somebody to message me and say. And then subsequently had seven or eight different people

again who came back and told me, name and address of the person,

who it was. As more people get to see the video,

Stuart decides to give the man a chance to do the right thing.

And once it got sort of 20,000 views, I was pretty...

Within a day, I was pretty sure it was going to come back.

And he's right. Later that same day...

A man comes along, same guy, same coat, tips it out,

a big heavy object out of his coat again.

And puts him just behind the door. And walks off.

Back home, sweet gnome.

And it's taken just six hours from when the video was posted.

Yes, I was made up. I thought it was fantastic.

It was brilliant. Brilliant.

The power of social media.

So, as gnomes go, Julian has been pretty lucky. Well, maybe not pretty.

I think he's more popular than he ever was before, to be honest.

He's enjoying all the attention.

He's like the local celebrity.

It is fantastic.

And as for the man who borrowed him,

hopefully he will keep HIS nose clean, too.

That's it for today.

Join us next time when police and the public catch more criminals red-handed.