Heidi Crime Scene Rescue

In the UK, there's a burglary every 45 seconds.

But right across Britain, committed police forces

are leading the battle to stop the thieves in their tracks.

Police! Come and open the door,

otherwise entry's going to have to be forced!

For the victims of these crimes it can take months,

or even years, to overcome the trauma.

It's getting to me now.

Yeah, last night I just sort of felt it was al...

It was almost as if it hadn't happened, it was very surreal.

But in this series, we're about to show them - and you -

how we can all fight back against the burglars.

This is...

On today's show, we meet Heidi -

who's had a desperate year after battling cancer,

and now she's been burgled.

I've... I'm having chemotherapy at the moment, so you can imagine.

And you think, you know, "I've worked hard, it's not like they were..."

You know, and they're presents and I'll never get those back now, will I?

But my army of helpers have pulled out all the stops to turn things around.

And I'd like to say thank you very much to you, for all your help.

You know, it's been a process and I don't think it would have been as...

easily done if it hadn't been for you.

And whilst I work hard to improve Heidi's security,

I also join the police as they go on the offensive.

With every burglary costing the taxpayer around £4,000,

this force is going all out to catch the thieves,

using everything at their disposal.

It's 6.30 in the evening

and in a district of Leeds, a call from a woman is coming in.

After returning from a long day at work, Heidi discovered

that thieves have stolen treasured items from her house.

We just had a call - there's a burglary at this address.

We know very little about it, which is often the case.

There's one officer on the scene, so let's have a chat.

Tell me what happened today.

I've come home from work and I've walked in and the door is open here.

And I thought, "That's strange,"

and I've noticed that my conservatory door is ajar.

My laptop is still here.

So I've walked upstairs and there's all black footprints,

and people have been in and stolen all my jewellery. And it's stuff that I won't replace.

There's stuff from my godmother, who's dead now, and necklaces and bracelets and...

It wasn't, I suppose, a massive amount of money but it's not the point, really.

The point is that you've had someone in your home.

'The thieves broke through the patio door that led into the conservatory.'

Oh, yeah. You can see some markings here.

So do you think they've actually levered it open?

Usually you'd expect this bit to be broken off

and the lock barrel snapped.

So I'm quite surprised they managed to jemmy this door open.

Very surprised.

'It seems the criminals knew what they were looking for -

'and it's only when we get upstairs that the full extent of the burglary becomes apparent.'

-Oh, look, you've got...

-Yeah, if you look you can see.

They've put all your stuff on the floor. Look at it. Absolutely rifled through.

They shut my curtains because, obviously, they don't want people looking in, do they?

And, Heidi, when you came home and you saw all your personal items,

or what's left of them, on the floor, scattered like that...

-Gutted.

-Is that how you feel?

Yeah. I've had a really bad year.

I've... I'm having chemotherapy at the moment, so you can imagine.

You think, you know, "I've worked hard. It's not like they were..."

You know, and they're presents and I'll never get those back now, will I?

Cos it... I've got some costume jewellery they've left me -

they obviously knew what they were looking for. I don't feel very secure now.

Your home is YOUR home, isn't it? And YOU invite people into your home.

When someone comes uninvited, it's awful and... But what can I say?

At least it wasn't late at night -

at least it wasn't in the middle of the night.

Just an awful thing for you to come home and find.

Yeah. Yeah, it was a bit of a shock. I'm still a bit shocked.

So the police have called the Scenes of Crime team

to come and have a look and just see if there's anything that they can find - clues...

-Yeah.

-..as to who might have done this.

I'd imagine they'd want to have a close look over there

at some of these surfaces, especially the drawers

and the inside of the drawers and bits and pieces.

As the Scenes of Crime officer arrives,

PC James Birks checks with the neighbours

to see if they have any vital information.

There's been a burglary next door but one today.

-I just wondered if you'd heard or seen anything, basically.

-I've been at work all day.

So this was the point of entry, so Scenes of Crime are just having

a look now just to see if there's any marks - any finger marks, especially.

So he's just doing a dust-out now.

I mean, it looks like quite a brutal way of forcing that door open,

so it may not have too many, but it's always worth trying.

And it's a nice smooth surface so he's got something to work with.

'The lock is intact, but I'm amazed that these doors have been forced -

'something you don't expect.

'For PC Birks, it's not the only line of enquiry.'

There's a primary school at the back, as well,

so we'll be looking for CCTV enquiries there.

A lot of people do have CCTV, as well, so it's...

You know, if anyone does have CCTV in the area then, you know,

I'll be asking them to check through their database.

'Meanwhile I'm seeing how the Scenes of Crime officer

'is getting on with the forensics.'

If you have a look by the fence,

I mean, it looks like a... Some sort of footwear mark down the bottom.

So it seems that's the way the offender's

come into the property and possibly left, as well.

But what he's doing now is just seeing if he can find out where he's gone from this point.

And trying to find if you can see an escape route.

'For Heidi, the end of a long working day

'has become every homeowner's worst nightmare. I want to see what I can do to help.'

It's awful what's happened. I can't imagine...to know what's going through your mind right now.

I mean, jewellery can be replaced,

but your security and how you feel about your home...

That security feeling - that takes a while to come back again.

I want to know if there's anything we can do to help you

and make this place more secure.

You do seem to have a lot going for this property

to make it quite secure, however they've still got in.

There wasn't a burglar alarm present.

In your cul de sac, there are an awful lot of burglar alarms.

-Yeah.

-And from my time in the police I do know that it's very often

an opportunist crime, and they tend to look for the easy target.

Now, if I was walking down the cul de sac

and I saw that there's burglar alarms on every house except one,

obviously I'm probably going to target the one that doesn't have one.

-So that's something I think we can do. I know you've got a cat here - Spike.

-Sorry!

And, er, some people are put off if they've got a pet,

but there are certain alarms that you can get -

not very expensive - that do allow for pets and won't be activated by a pet.

How does that sound so far? This is your home, at the end of the day.

I thought I was secure, and I have been secure for ten years.

All of a sudden now they're... a bit more sophisticated, maybe,

and they're... It's not secure.

A burglar alarm is a thing to... To look at now.

If there's anything we can do, we certainly will do.

'For Heidi, it's not only the jewellery that's gone.'

They've stolen my security.

You know, they've made me feel insecure in my own home

and I don't think I deserve that as a person.

I'm never going to feel safe at night now.

Every time I hear a bump or a crack or a...

I'm going to be thinking, "Oh, my God, it's someone breaking in again downstairs."

'Even though the patio doors have been forced,

'the police have checked them out

'and they can be secured for the night.'

I really want to be able to help Heidi out

because she has been through so much these last few months,

but her house is actually quite secure.

I'm really going to have to make some phone calls fast,

because this job is going to be a challenge.

'I've returned to the police station. There's work to be done.'

Hi, Steve, it's Rav.

'Hiya, Rav.'

Steve, we need your help.

We've got a lady that was burgled

and, er, she's got no burglar-alarm system whatsoever.

Be mindful she's got a cat, as well,

so she's a bit worried about her cat setting off any alarms.

Is that something you can work around?

'Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's no problem.'

OK. What I'll do, I'll send you over the details of the property

and I'll meet you there, but that sounds great. Thanks for your help.

-'OK, thank you.'

-Cheers, then. Bye-bye.

-'See you. Cheers. Bye.'

'It's early morning in Leeds and I'm paying a return visit to Heidi.'

So, Heidi, last time I saw you you'd literally just got burgled,

and you've had a night to sleep on it, and how are you feeling today?

A bit shocked, actually.

A bit sort of gutted about the whole thing. And...

you just have to accept it, don't you, and move on?

I mean, there's a lot of really personal stuff that's gone

that I'll never, ever replace.

You know, at least my house is intact.

You know, they didn't destroy my house, they didn't damage my house.

'Heidi's insurance will be covering the cost of replacing the patio doors,

'but she does need an alarm - and that's definitely something I can help with.

'I've enrolled the help of Steve,

'a local tradesman who answered my call after Heidi's burglary.'

Thanks for coming.

If you have a look round all the other houses,

every one seems to have a burglar-alarm box, except this one.

And I think that must be one of the reasons why this place was targeted.

I think it needs a nice new system put in that really sends out,

literally, the alarm signals to anyone that fancies a go at this place, to know it is secure.

Now, obviously a lot of people are put off with alarms

because they go in, it starts making a noise,

they've got to go and put the code into the keypad. And even though it's not a great deal to do,

it does put some people off. Is there anything you can do there to help out?

Yes. We can have a remote-control fob,

which she can have on her handbag or on her person,

and just press the fob and that will switch the system off remotely.

It sounds pretty good to me, Steve.

'Households with less than basic security measures

'are six times more likely to be burgled than homes that have protection, like an alarm.'

You can just see the small marks there.

I mean, it was literally brute force that they've used to somehow lever that door open.

So I'm thinking if you can put some contact points on there,

that would make a big audible alarm the minute that's opened... That's something you think you can do?

Yeah, yeah. Perfect. The door contacts can go onto the door

and if somebody forces it open, it would...

Instant alarm, all the instant bells - internal and external. That's fine.

'Figures suggest that only 12% of homes that have been burgled

'have gone on to update their home security.

'And if you've been burgled once,

'there's a higher chance of it happening again.

'Homeowners like Heidi face the distress of losing their precious belongings every day.'

Right, ladies and gents, we'll make a start on the briefing.

The second phase of Operation Annette.

'While I've been in West Yorkshire, I've been shadowing the police

'as they wage a war against the burglars.

'I'm sitting in on a briefing.

'The police force are about to raid a number of properties in Leeds

'that are believed to be dealing in stolen goods.

'It's common for the police to discover

'the proceeds of several burglaries during these raids.'

So the officers are just about to go in and execute a warrant in a takeaway where they believe

there's a number of stolen items as the proceeds from burglary.

And they're going in as we speak.

Police. Police.

Whoa, whoa, whoa! Whoa, whoa, whoa. Just stand clear.

Can we get them to turn everything off and then we'll take them downstairs and...

We've got one of the workers from the inside here, who's saying this is just a cellar.

He's happy to show the officers round so that's what they're doing at the moment -

he's just showing them what's down here. So that's the fast bit.

Now it's the slow-time bit, doing the search.

Which, with a place as stacked up as this - and this is just one room of very many -

-it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

-Yeah, this is the dull bit.

-Yeah.

Yeah. So we'll get cracking, eh?

'The suspects in the takeaway have been searched and questioned,

'but nothing's been found.

'The police are now checking another part of the building.'

-You've done the main building?

-We have, yes. That's right.

-You've contained everyone inside.

-Yes.

-You're happy there's no more people there.

-That's correct.

-And there's nothing obvious at the moment?

-No. They're carrying on a search.

With jewellery and small items, it's a bit more of a detailed search.

-Absolutely. There is another door...

-There is.

-..behind me here, part of the same building,

-but tell me about that.

-We've heard noises upstairs in the flat -

it's clear there's somebody in there.

We've tried to knock on the door - they're refusing us entry.

So the officers are just getting ready now

to force entry to that door so that we can gain entry,

and secure the premises inside there, and also search up there now.

'The police are going after more suspects and stolen goods.'

It looks like it could possibly be student accommodation

or a number of bedsits.

There seems like three or four flats or bedsits there.

There's another one at the top there.

Chris has just been talking to a female.

It sounds like she thinks there might be other people actually in these rooms.

'While the police are acting on good intelligence,

'there's no sign of any stolen property as yet.'

We've spoken to the lady - obviously, limited English. Officers are now on with Language Line

to try and assist with the communication barrier.

From what we can establish, there's various people,

various ages, in there.

We're trying to ascertain where they're from,

whether they're legally in the country, given the way they reacted to the police attending here.

Those enquiries are now ongoing with officers inside the building,

with immigration at the airport, to ascertain... See if we can find out who they are.

-Brilliant. So, quite a bit of work for you guys to do.

-It is.

We're still carrying on down here and the search will continue

for the original reason why we're here, with the laptops and the jewellery.

Now, your team did two warrants this evening at the same time, this being one.

Tell me how the other one went.

The other one - we've arrested two males at the other takeaway,

in relation to handling stolen goods.

As we speak, there's further officers from that team

who are going on to their home addresses, to conduct the searches there.

We've recovered a number of items at the other takeaway,

so we're just waiting for those identifying now, really. And again, that's ongoing, as well.

'It's a cold night in Leeds

'and CID officers John Brayshaw and Chantelle Markham, from the Priority Crime Team,

'are paying Heidi a visit.

'They'll be seeing what they can do to help recover her jewellery.'

What we're wanting to do is go round the shops as soon as possible

and look out for some of your jewellery.

Most of t'shop owners are quite pro-police, to be fair,

and they do, you know, tell us if someone's been in,

and often they report it if they think it's suspicious.

Did you manage to get any photographs or...?

-Well, I've done a list.

-Yeah.

And this is the thing I did for you.

These are my diamond earrings here, that's the...

And these rings here, they're the things that were on the back of each of these cards,

saying what the stones are, how much they weigh and the weight of gold.

For now, I mean we'll take them because if somebody's brought in, sort of, three rings that match

three of the ones on there, then the chances are that it's going to be...

-You know, if there's just one that's like it...

-If anything, it'll be my bracelets

because they're Victorian gate bracelets.

All right. No worries. Thanks. See you later. Bye.

In the neighbourhood around Heidi's home, the police are making

house-to-house calls in a bid to maintain a strong presence.

It may be that someone comes forward with information.

And a few miles away at the station,

there's an update from CID officer Chantelle Markham.

We've been round as many of the local jewellery stores

as possible to see if anybody's taken any of it in.

It is quite distinctive stuff.

At the moment we haven't had any results on that

but we're also in the process of doing a press release

to see if anybody has come into contact with any of the jewellery that was stolen.

Hard-working Heidi has had a torrid few months.

She's enduring chemotherapy treatment after battling cancer,

and being burgled has left her feeling vulnerable at home.

It's time to make her feel safe and secure again -

and Steve and colleague Richard have started to fit the new alarm system.

With alarm contacts being fitted to the doors

and sensors being fitted to the interior,

this house will soon become a lot safer.

Steve, box looks great - totally changed the appearance of the front of this house straightaway.

Tell me what you've done inside.

Well, Richard's been connecting the sensors and the control panel.

He's just finished connecting the final door contact.

And if that alarm is activated, I can see the blue on the outside - is that going to light up as well?

-Yeah. There's a strobe what lights up.

-Sounds great. Thank you, Steve.

-Thank you very much for your help.

-It's OK.

It's late afternoon and I've come to see Roger Lomas,

who works for the Co-ordinating and Tasking Office - or CATO for short.

They're the police units responsible for gathering intelligence about Heidi's burglars.

In terms of the burglary that occurred, the MO -

i.e. in terms of MO, the method of how the suspects

have actually gained entry and the property they've stolen -

is very similar to two previous burglaries

and there is a match on two potential suspects for the burglary.

The next stage will be for the Proactive Crime Team

to consider the intelligence that's been put forward to them,

with the two names, look at the previous offending background,

look to see what markers are on and then they will consider an arrest.

So officers are out there, they act on the information

as soon as it's received,

and there's a much higher potential that any stolen property will still be at the address.

The police are hoping to catch Heidi's burglars by using a mixture of intelligence

and also disrupting the lifestyle of known offenders.

In a bid to drive down the crime level in West Yorkshire,

the police are doing all they can to get the criminals off the streets.

Officers are tracking down known offenders who have broken their bail conditions

after being released early from prison.

Essentially, what we're trying to do is make enquiries

in respect of the information that we've had.

So we're just awaiting that at the moment

but we've got, in the meantime, some information about another address.

So that's obviously somewhere that we're going to be making a call.

Police check all known addresses for the offenders -

and if at first they don't succeed...

The two addresses that we've been to there - the first address was negative.

His brother had said that he'd just gone out.

We attended at a second address which is

one of his associates' addresses.

We did find him there. He did give false details to the police.

It wasn't until myself and my colleague walked in there

that obviously we knew clearly who it was and he was arrested.

The man, who attended the police station, was released without charge.

So far there's no joy finding Heidi's burglars.

However, on the night of the break-in,

the Scenes of Crime officer did find fingerprints and a footprint in the garden.

And this forensic analysis often plays a crucial role in police investigations.

The Scenes of Crime officers are always quickly on hand

to gather evidence before it's disturbed.

Fundamentally what they are actually doing is trying to put themselves

in the mind of the burglar. And when they're looking at the scene,

thinking whereabouts that offender will have been,

what they will have touched

and where they may have left evidence for us, hopefully, to recover.

They will be looking for evidence which could be visible or,

on the other hand, may be invisible to the naked eye.

Potentially looking for fingerprints,

looking for footwear marks, looking for DNA.

In Heidi's case, the fingerprints found on the patio doors

offer a unique clue to the identity of the burglar.

Incredibly, every single fingerprint is one of a kind.

Scenes of Crime officer Sally Smith shows us how the evidence is collected.

So I just apply this fine powder lightly,

so that you can see the fingerprints and now you can see those being developed.

OK. So I'm just going to peel off the fingerprints now.

But it's not only fingerprints

that can be used to identify the burglars.

Police are increasingly using other forensic evidence

and at Heidi's, they also found a clear footprint in the garden.

Of course the offender may not leave their fingerprints behind,

but they have to walk around the house that they've burgled.

Therefore we would use all the tools available to us

to find that footwear mark left by the offender at the scene.

The distinctive imprints left by different designs of footwear

are recorded on a vast police database.

A footwear mark would enable us to find out the brand or type of shoe.

We could then use that to try and link that to other burglaries

which might have happened nearby or within the same area.

And that quite often happens, where you'll get a series of burglaries

where they've got the same or similar footwear marks,

and then you could possibly attribute that to the same person.

Once the evidence is collected from the crime scene, it is

processed back at the station.

Here it's added to a detailed database

so it can be cross-referenced with millions of suspects nationwide.

That'll go across to our Identification Bureau.

They'll have a look at the fingerprint to see

if it belongs to anyone who's on our database.

If there's someone already in custody for this offence,

then they'd be able to look at the fingerprints straightaway,

so they can look at the fingerprints immediately.

Forensic evidence like that found at Heidi's home

continues to play a key role in modern police work.

In West Yorkshire, we aim to attend 100% of all burglary crimes.

That message is quite simple -

that if you are a victim of a burglary

in the West Yorkshire Police area,

you will be visited by one of the Scenes of Crime officers.

Even though Heidi thought her house was safe,

burglars still managed to get past the security that was in place to steal her jewellery.

These were precious items that can never be replaced.

It's been a traumatic few months and I really wanted to help.

I hope that the alarm system restores Heidi's safe haven,

as she looks towards a brighter future.

And as the security work is coming to an end,

I'm back to see how she feels now.

The alarm box is all out at the front and I've had a look and I'm really impressed, actually.

-I think it makes a big difference. Do you want to take a look?

-Yes, please.

-Let's have a look.

-Thanks.

So, Heidi, here we are at the front of your house.

You've got your brand-new alarm box there.

Now this is up and running, it's really going to make a difference.

You can set the alarm off yourself.

If you did feel panicked in there, you can press a button

-and the alarms will all sound.

-Yep.

-That blue light up there's going to flash.

It's going to scare anyone off, it's going to alert your neighbours.

-It's a good thing - you've got a tight-knit community, haven't you?

-We have, yeah.

-And you can...

-If an alarm was going to go off, we'd all come out and have a look.

-Yeah, course we would. Yeah.

-Which is really nice.

So, hopefully, that's just a small thing that we can do for you

to make you feel a little bit better after the horrible thing that happened to you.

I'd like to say to those people that come to people's houses and steal,

you steal more than contents.

You steal people's memories, you steal people's security.

I just hope it was worth it for them, quite frankly.

You know, cos I really, really, at this stage in my life,

could have done without all of this.

But I have to say, thank you very much to the alarm people -

both Steve and Richard. They've been fantastic today.

-Good.

-And it's really, really kind and I'd like to say thank you very much to you, for all your help.

You know, it's been a process and I don't think it would have been

as easily done if it hadn't been for you

Well, it's been an absolute pleasure.

Obviously, I wish we hadn't met in these circumstances.

-Yes.

-But if it makes it that much better for you, then, obviously,

that's a success because it's one of the worst things that can happen to anyone, being burgled.

I know that from my time in the police. I dealt with hundreds of burglaries and it's never easy

and I really, really feel for you.

I'm more reassured now that, obviously, if anyone was to break in, the alarm's going to go off.

And I'm really pleased, I feel a lot happier.

I'll sleep better, I think, tonight and I'll stay asleep, I think.

It's changed how I value my home.

I've decided now I'm not going to be a victim, you know.

I don't want to live in Fort Knox,

but now I live in a house that is as secure as I can make it.

Despite the efforts of the police,

Heidi's jewellery has not yet been found.

The two possible suspects identified were not arrested,

as they were later eliminated from police enquires.

And though the crime remains unsolved,

it is still being investigated.

I'm really pleased we've been able to assist Heidi,

especially after she's had such a hard few months.

And the installation of that burglar alarm

has clearly made such a difference to her home security.

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