Episode 7 Caught Red Handed

Thieves will steal our cash, our cars, our valuables.

Just about anything they can get their hands on.

But now, the police are using cutting-edge technology

to catch the bad guys.

We want to make sure we've got a concrete case.

Enough evidence to convict at court.

Local councils, shops and businesses are fighting crime

with their own tricks and traps.

It's just unbelievable that she thinks she can get away with this.

And the public are using secret cameras

to make sure the crooks get their comeuppance.

Fair means or foul, I was going to get rid of him.

I thought, we've got her.

And I was so happy.

Thank God!

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

They might just get Caught Red Handed.

Today, there's trouble in store for shopkeeper Adil

when one of his regular customers suddenly changes character

and turns into an armed robber.

He showed me the knife. He said, "Open the till."

I said, "Please, I know you."

He said, "I don't care. Just open the till."

Also today, Peter has a whodunnit mystery to solve.

Who's been stealing from his 100-year-old dad?

Everybody was under suspicion.

The family, neighbours coming in. He could have up to six carers.

And pub landlord Brendan is angry

when he discovers someone has stolen money out of a charity box

meant for a local hospice.

I was gutted when that box went missing.

Yeah, it broke my heart.

The man makes the box disappear like an illusionist.

But Brendan had a trick or two of his own.

Our local shops are often open well before we wake up

and they close long after we've finished work.

And, when shopkeepers are working that hard,

it's not surprising they don't like it

when people try to steal their hard-earned cash.

In Bournemouth on the south coast, Adil runs a convenience store.

He's originally from Turkey, and came to the UK 18 years ago,

settling in central London.

But, after a while, Adil felt life in the capital

was taking its toll on the health of his wife Zeynep

and their daughter Sudenaz.

My wife and my daughter, they have asthma.

Big city, traffic, I can't stay.

All they want is a good life, isn't it?

While he was in London,

Adil had been working in a store for a relative.

When the chance came to run his own shop in Bournemouth, he went for it.

He took over a business that was on its knees

but Adil has now slowly built the shop up again.

It's not been easy.

When I first been here, there's not much customers.

It's a big competition, we can't sell for much profit.

I haven't got much money.

We just pay the bill. Still, I'm happy. Still, I'm happy.

As Adil hoped, living by the sea has improved his family's health.

It's been a good move all round.

I love my customers.

I'm happy there's nice people, nice areas here.

But one of those customers Adil says he loves to serve

is about to threaten him and his hard-earned livelihood.

It's a Monday morning, and business as usual for Adil.

I'm opening my shop about 6.50am, something like that.

Not long after opening, a man comes in.

Adil recognises him as he's been in before.

I know him. I don't know his name exactly.

But he's coming to ask me, "Please can I borrow your lighter?"

I keep the one lighter behind the counter all the time.

Some customers, they want it. I give it them.

The man goes outside for a cigarette.

When he comes back in to return a lighter,

Adil decides to do him a small favour.

I know he has not much money, you know, I said...

He just give it to me back nicely.

I said, "No, it's all right. Keep it, mate. Don't worry."

The man leaves.

But, half an hour later, he returns.

And he's picked up on the security cameras entering the store.

He waits with his coat sleeve pulled over his right hand.

Adil comes out of the back room and goes to the till.

But the man doesn't come up to him.

Instead, he comes round to behind the counter, surprising Adil.

What's the reason he's coming around here?

Normally, they are not allowed to come behind the counter.

Something's going wrong.

The man demands cash.

He said, "I need money."

I said, "It's all right, mate. I need the money, as well.

"That's the reason I'm here."

Adil tries to defuse the situation

by putting a friendly arm on the man's shoulder.

But the man aggressively pushes him back towards the till.

He pulls back his coat sleeve to reveal to Adil

that he's holding a large bread knife in his right hand.

I didn't see it before this, the knife.

He said, "Open the till, I'm not joking."

I said, "No."

"It's nearly 8.30. Not any money in the till.

"Just the change. You can't do nothing with that."

He said, "No, give me the money."

Adil still hopes he can appeal to the robber's better nature.

I'm trying to just help him, firstly.

I said, "I know you. You can turn now.

"Please get out of the shop nicely. I don't report anything."

But the man continues pointing at the till,

angrily demanding Adil opens it.

I said, "You're going to prison for that. That's not nice for you."

But he never listen.

He said, "I don't care. I need the money. Just open the till."

He just pushed me back, he said, "Open the till, open the till."

With nothing in the till,

Adil fears he's now in danger whether he opens it or not.

Every minute, he got angry, as well.

You never know people they're going to do something.

Adil quickly hatches a plan to get the robber to back off.

I said, "It's all right, mate. Would you like money, yeah?"

He said, "Yes."

I said, "It's all right. I don't want to see your knife.

"Just leave your knife down there.

"I'm going to check the money for you under the counter.

"Maybe some money down there."

He said, "It's all right. Quick, give me money."

Adil walks back towards the till

and asks the robber to move a safe distance away.

Then he reaches under the counter where there's a baseball bat.

He doesn't want to hurt the man but hopes he can scare him off.

He charges at him.

I didn't hurt him. Just I'm doing it like that. But I didn't hurt him.

I'm not like that person like that.

After that, I don't know what I'm going to do.

But the man doesn't leave.

Instead, he grabs Adil's bat.

The pair start a desperate struggle.

Adil won't release the bat, so the robber uses his knife.

He cuts Adil's hand, so he lets go.

Adil grimaces in pain

but he clings on bravely and manages to wrestle back the bat.

The pair break away from each other,

Adil's wounded hand clearly causing him pain.

The robber gives up on Adil opening the till

and starts grabbing at the bottles of spirits.

He just take the two spirits.

Adil remembers he has a panic alarm button below the counter

and presses it.

ALARM WAILS

The loud alarm goes off.

When I pushed the alarm button, he never scared.

He's very quiet. He didn't run.

Finally, the robber leaves.

Adil's thankful his ordeal is over.

He take just the two spirits.

I'm happy he's gone and left like that.

The police arrive within minutes.

Adil tells them the robber is a customer.

He can't believe the sudden change in the man's character.

When he's coming to here, all the time, he's quiet.

He didn't talk to you. Not much.

He just come in to buy the foodstuff, he just pays, just gone.

But not this time.

The police take away the security camera footage

to begin their investigation.

And Adil starts to reflect on how he resisted the aggressive robber.

Watching it back, he's not sure he would react the same way again.

It's scary, really.

At the time, I'm not really scary, but a little bit,

but after I'm watched that one, I said, oh,

he maybe going to kill me, he maybe going to stop me,

I'm thinking, second time, maybe he's going to.

Next time, I'm going to more be careful.

But, hopefully, there won't be a next time,

certainly as far as this robber is concerned.

The shop security camera pictures

mean the police can put out an appeal with his image on it.

With all eyes in the local area now looking out for him,

there's no escape.

The man, who lives near Adil's shop, hands himself in a few days later.

In court, the man pleaded guilty to robbery,

and possessing a knife in a public place.

He was sentenced to four years in prison.

Adil's satisfied with the outcome.

I don't want anyone to go to prison.

But I'm happy as well.

The locals appreciate that Adil's actions

have taken a dangerous offender off their streets.

All my customers coming to me, they said, thank you.

That's a bad people that you've removed from here.

That's better for us.

They're happy as well, my customers, as well.

Thank you, see you, bye-bye. Bye.

Now, here's a thief who's on the bottom rung of the criminal ladder.

And he's likely to stay there,

judging by his struggle to unfold this collapsible ladder.

He's broken into an equipment yard

and his plan is to put the ladder against the gate

and lift the stuff he's stealing up and over the barbed wire.

But he can't quite rise to the challenge.

Turning the ladder over, he tries jumping on it to straighten it out

but that doesn't work either.

So he goes off in search of a solution.

He's found another ladder.

Maybe these will be his steps to success

as he tries to steal a pressure washer.

But he still can't make a clean getaway.

The cack-handed thief gets it tangled up in the barbed wire

and can't free it.

So, finally, he gives up on his game of mistakes and ladders.

Next morning, staff can't believe their eyes

when they find the washer hanging off the barbed wire.

But, because the bungling burglar's been caught on camera,

the police are hot on his trail.

If he ends up in prison,

there's not much danger of him escaping from there, either.

Money is vanishing from an elderly man's bedroom

but there's an endless stream of possible culprits.

Carers, friends, neighbours - even family.

Who would be so callous as to steal from a man 100 years old?

The town of Sandbach in Cheshire is where Peter lives,

just a few miles away from his father, Frank.

Frank was a Canadian lumberjack

who originally came to work in Britain during the war.

And then he met and fell in love with Peter's mother, Mary.

Mum was a gentle lady, very placid.

My dad, he looked after his family, he was a hard worker.

Peter's parents enjoyed 75 years of marriage.

Surrounded by children, grandchildren

and great-grandchildren,

their house was the centre of many happy family occasions.

Family is very, very important.

I always remember the kids used to come out of school

and go around Grandma and Grandad's.

And the family used to gather every Sunday

when Mum used to put on a treat.

We always had a get-together like that.

One the biggest family events was when Frank turned 100.

Dad did enjoy his 100th birthday

with all his family there and his cake!

Unfortunately, six months later,

Mary suffered a bad fall and had to move into a nursing home.

Frank remained at the couple's house

with a team of carers and family members helping to look after him.

But it becomes apparent one of those visitors has different priorities

when money starts to go missing.

Frank's decided he'd prefer not to talk on camera

about what happened that summer but he still wants the story to be told.

It all starts one day when his son Peter is visiting his dad

and Frank tells him he thinks some of his money has gone missing.

He used to keep 50 to £100 in his wallet in his bedside cupboard.

The reason for that, he kept it for treats for the kids.

Frank is too frail to go to the bank himself

so Peter collects the money

and puts it in a drawer by the side of the bed.

Only close family know it's there,

and Peter can't believe that any of them would steal from his dad.

So he puts it down to Frank being confused.

My mum did all the paperwork and things.

My dad didn't understand that side of it.

So, he was always suspicious of things to do with money

or cheques and things like that.

But, a few weeks later, Frank tells Peter he thinks more money has gone.

The second time, it twigged.

You know, I thought, there must be something,

there could be something in this.

Peter and his sister

decide to monitor the cash in their dad's wallet

and, sure enough, a few days later,

they see for themselves money has vanished.

I was shocked to confirm that my dad was right, there was money missing.

But who's taking it?

Frank receives a lot of visitors.

He could have up to six carers coming in over the weeks.

Neighbours coming in. Everybody was under suspicion.

The family, the carers and everybody.

When Peter breaks the news to his dad

that there is definitely a thief in their midst, Frank is very upset.

He wasn't trusting anybody.

He actually told me he was peeping round corners at the carers,

making sure they weren't going in the bedroom

and checking people coming in.

It really got to him, you know, which upset me.

Determined to solve this mystery,

Peter goes on to the internet and buys a special clock

that contains a hidden camera.

He puts it on Frank's bedroom wall,

notifying the police and social services about what he's doing.

Then, he puts £80 in his dad's wallet, and waits.

A few days later, money goes missing again.

Peter can't wait to check the camera recording.

I took the little card out, brought it back here,

put it on my computer at home.

Peter expects to spool through the footage,

observing and eliminating the suspects one by one

before identifying the thief.

But, to his dismay,

the camera doesn't work around the time that the cash goes missing.

His investigation couldn't have got off to a worse start.

I felt really upset at the time

because I was silly enough to put £80 in the wallet

and they took £50, but I couldn't prove it.

Frank is distraught.

There's tears in his eyes.

He actually says, "Somebody's pinching my money."

That's what really upset me.

Peter can't bear the thought of the guilty person slipping away again

so he decides to try an expensive, more reliable camera.

This is the new camera's recording of Frank as he tidies his bedroom.

It seems to be working.

But Peter doesn't want to risk too much cash this time

so he puts just a £10 note and two £5 notes in the wallet.

I wrote down the numbers,

and checked it on the Thursday when I set it up.

I checked it on the Friday,

and everybody who had been through was recorded.

It had worked, and the money was still intact.

On Sunday, the new camera proves its worth.

The carers came in three times a day, half an hour each day.

The morning carer checked my dad was all right,

had his breakfast, and made the bed.

But, later in the day, another carer is filmed

where she has no right to be.

The evening carer, all she had to do was give him his tea,

which she'd made up already, and make sure he was all right,

and a cup of tea. She has no reason whatsoever to go in the bedroom.

But she is in the bedroom, and clearly anxious,

checking Frank's not coming down the hallway.

Then, she walks over to the bedside cabinet

and seems to know exactly what she's doing.

She can be seen putting something in her pocket

as she walks out of the room.

Later that evening, the camera also records Peter's sister

coming into their dad's room.

My sister was checking, same as me.

She notices £10 is missing

and immediately sends a text message to Peter who rushes straight round.

I thought, we've got her now, or him,

because I knew the camera was working.

As I was dismantling and checking the thing,

I was shaking, really, I think, because I wasn't sure what I'd find.

Peter takes the recording back home to watch on his computer

and he finally gets the evidence he's been after.

I was that pleased that I'd caught her.

I thought, we've got her at long last.

And I was shaking when I rang the police.

The camera doesn't only provide video evidence for the police,

it provides audio as well.

If you actually listen, you can hear her undoing the zip...

ZIP UNFASTENING

..taking the money out, looking round again,

put the money in her top pocket and gone back to my father.

I was disgusted.

The police take Peter's footage and arrest the woman.

Thanks to the CCTV, she realises the game is up.

When they told me she'd admitted it, I was dead chuffed. Yeah.

Four months later, the woman appeared in court.

She pleaded guilty to theft and was sentenced

to 100 hours of unpaid community work.

She also had to pay £180 in fines and costs.

Sadly, Peter's mother Mary,

who was in a nursing home during all of this,

died the same week as the court case.

Mum didn't know anything about the money, which I'm very grateful for.

The agency fired the carer the day she was arrested.

It's a very sad episode, but the good thing is we've caught her

and I know she won't be doing it with anybody else.

And Frank can now feel safe in his home once more.

He knows we've caught the person who's done it,

so he's quite happy now, which is the main thing.

On Caught Red Handed,

we've seen numerous carers caught stealing from people in their care.

Over a million people in this country

work in the care industry and very few of those are dishonest.

But what should we do if we're suspicious

that someone looking after our family or friends is up to no good?

If you think that stuff is going missing, make a note of it,

the time and date, and just keep doing that,

keep it in a little book so that,

when you do have to inform the police at a later date,

we can establish the true facts of what's occurred.

If you get to the stage where you think you might want to use CCTV,

seek professional advice through the police service

or through private companies,

get the right equipment that will record effectively.

Do a dry run with the family members, for example.

You don't have to tell somebody when they come in you're recording them

because it's your own personal space.

But make sure you don't use it in an intrusive area

such as a bathroom.

If the carer or employee finds the camera within your property

and confronts you, my advice would be that you just say to them,

you've put it in there to protect your loved one or your own property.

They shouldn't have an issue with it if they're behaving properly.

It's only those individuals that I think

would be behaving improperly

that are likely to have issue with it and then you may need to rethink

whether you continue employing that person.

A mysterious, smartly-dressed stranger is having a drink in a pub.

He seems well-to-do, but this is definitely no gentleman.

He's got his eye on some money

that's intended for people who are terminally ill.

In Huddersfield, Brendan and his wife Jody run the Brooks Arms pub.

It's a real nice place to work, definitely, yeah.

A nice bunch of people that come in.

Our close customers, they're more family.

We all stick together. It's a lively pub.

I love working here, I do. I do.

The close-knit crowd at the pub

regularly fill a charity box that Brendan and Jody put on the bar.

It's a collection for a local hospice

which has a special place in Brendan's heart

because his mother Joan was a patient there.

My mum was the best mum you could ever have, so kind.

She had a beautiful smile. It just lit up the whole place.

Joan passed away three years ago

after losing a long battle with cancer.

She spent her final days in Kirkwood Hospice

and Brendan will never forget the care they gave her.

They were just absolutely amazing with her.

She couldn't ask for anything else, you know, so, yeah,

they looked after her the best they could.

Brendan really took it to heart. It's his mum.

They gave him loads of after-care.

We could have counselling, which I did.

They were fantastic in that way.

Ever since he lost his mum,

Brendan and Jody have worked hard to raise funds

to show their appreciation to Kirkwood.

So they are deeply shocked to find there's someone who thinks

that the money would be better in his pocket

than going to help the hospice.

It's a typical Sunday evening at the Brooks Arms.

A security camera picks up this man drinking at the bar.

I was down here mingling with the customers.

I haven't seen him before.

I got talking to him outside, he seemed a nice enough guy.

Jody's working behind the bar tonight.

She's also noticed the man.

He were paying for his drinks. He had money. He looked well-to-do.

But appearances can be deceptive.

The man's looking for the opportunity

to steal this collection box for the Kirkwood Hospice next to the till.

He uses sleight of hand to sweep away the charity box

and make it disappear.

When a nearby customer leaves the bar,

the man completes his crime with another conjuror's truck.

He moves the box beneath the bar and, out of sight,

he makes a hole in the cardboard so he can steal its contents.

The thief then leans down by the nearby fruit machine

and comes back up as if nothing's happened.

Then, moments later, he does a vanishing act.

It's not until the next morning

that Jody discovers the money box is missing.

I thought about this guy straightaway.

None of our locals would stoop so low

as to pinch a charity box, none of them.

I couldn't believe it at first.

I just go to look on CCTV to see who's got it.

The security camera reveals that it was the man at the bar

and shows how he did his dirty deed.

Jody and Brendan later find the empty cardboard charity box

stuffed behind the fruit machine.

It broke my heart, to say the least.

Not just because of my mum but because of, you know,

everybody else who has either lost the fight to cancer,

or is suffering with cancer now.

After calling the police, Brendan tells the hospice about the theft.

It was really disappointing,

really heartbreaking in a way, because that money

can make a massive difference to Kirkwood Hospice.

People obviously put their small change in,

but that small change grows into a massive pile

and we rely heavily on those donations.

For instance, £5 could pay for a patient

to have a really nice, hearty home-cooked meal.

So it really does add up.

Back at the Brooks Arms,

it's not just the loss of money that bothers Brendan and Jody,

it's who stole it and how he did it that annoys them.

It doesn't look like somebody who's desperate for money.

He's well-dressed.

It angers you, it really does.

I want to raise as much as I can. Oh... I can't do it.

The thief may have tricked everyone at the bar,

but Brendan has a trick of his own to play.

The well-dressed man doesn't know there was a camera on him

and Brendan puts the footage on the internet.

I wanted more people to see it and it went absolutely viral.

Huddersfield's horrified.

The video is shared nearly 4,000 times,

and viewed over 100,000 times.

I found out his name, I found out where he worked.

Within hours of the footage being posted,

the thief realises the game is up

and hands himself in at the local police station.

Because he handed himself in,

the police decided it was unnecessary to take it to court

and he was given a community order under police conditions instead.

But, at the Brooks Arms, some good came out of the affair.

With all the publicity,

the money that had been stolen was more than replaced.

People who don't come in the pub, coming in and donating,

because they'd seen it on social media, which were really nice.

In memory of his mum,

Brendan and Jody are determined to carry on holding

special charity events at their pub to support the hospice.

Every year, I want it to get bigger and bigger and bigger.

I want to raise as much as I can for Kirkwood.

That's it for today,

and that's it for a few more criminals

who have been Caught Red Handed.