Episode 2 Fightback Britain

Across Britain, you're capturing the evidence.

He tried to push past me, so I just pushed back.

You're setting the traps.

She took the first possible opportunity that she had on that day

to come and steal money from my wallet.

And you're even confronting the bad guys.

There's no time to think.

You had to stop him. There was no other way, really.

This series is all about the part you, the great British public,

are playing in the fight against crime.

It's someone else's phone - put it back!

Whether it's capturing car thieves or exposing career criminals.

Immediately, the till's open and he's taken the money.

The audacity to do that!

We'll show you how you're turning the tables on the lawbreakers.

And helping the police catch the crooks.

Welcome to Fightback Britain.

This week, a jewellery shop owner stands up to armed robbers.

This is my stuff, it's my jewellery,

and I ain't going to let these guys get away with it.

I meet a suburban crime fighter turning the tables on shoplifters.

Watch that magazine.

So if he re-emerges into the shop,

without the magazine, he's bang to rights.

And a woman hangs a knicker thief out to dry

after her pants are pinched.

All of a sudden, when I heard that bang on the fence,

I was like, "He's here." I was like, "Oh, my God."

Last year, one in six of us were victims of crime,

but that doesn't mean that we took it lying down.

We're going to show how you, the British public,

are fighting back against the bad guys.

Yes, from using the latest cameras to amateur detective work,

you're making life tough for the criminals

by passing evidence onto the police.

And sometimes you're going beyond the call,

putting your own life in danger in order to protect others.

I just made a snap decision, last minute, to move over and stop him.

Our first story started with an alert to Ross Phillips

at the M6 motorway control room.

Five hours into the shift,

we had reports come into the control room that there was a HGV

travelling southbound on the northbound carriageway,

so basically into oncoming traffic.

I started to look on the CCTV cameras that we've got access to.

A 30-tonne articulated lorry is hurtling down

the northbound carriageway of the M6 in the wrong direction.

You can't quite believe that it's happening.

It's quite frightening

when you see members of the public having to swerve out the way

when they've got an HGV travelling at 40-50mph coming towards them.

Initially, the lorry speeds along with its lights off.

Bizarrely, it then starts flashing them at oncoming traffic.

Every time it approached another vehicle,

it was like, "Oh, this could be it.

"Worst case scenario, somebody's going to die here."

The lorry forces an oncoming car to swerve out of the way.

The police had to act quickly.

Straight away, we're dispatching officers,

giving them live updates on its location, on its progress.

We made the decision to set the speeds to 20mph.

But with the lorry showing no signs of slowing down,

a serious accident seems inevitable.

MUSIC: "On The Road Again" by Canned Heat

Ten hours earlier, truck driver Simon Cotton had started his day.

I've been driving trucks for about 20 years.

The thing I like most about my job is being out on the road,

listening to the radio,

scenery's always changing.

In a typical week, I would cover about 1,500 kilometres.

Also on the road was trucker Krystian Wilenski.

I'm driving in England about six-seven years.

Typical shift for me is ten hours, sometimes more.

I'm truck driving because that was my...

..passion.

On that day, Krystian was driving his 28-tonne DAF to his final drop

and Simon in his 22-tonne 284hp MAN was heading home.

Neither had any idea what they were about to face.

The runaway truck was now passing junction 11

and the traffic was getting heavier. Scared drivers started calling 999.

RECORDING: Police emergency...

But with motorway police still several miles away,

in the control room,

Ross was bracing himself for a major incident.

At this point you can see two vehicles in a row

have had to swerve to avoid the HGV and they're in that much shock

and disbelief that they've had to pull over and stop.

We're in here, watching it on camera, thinking,

"It's going to collide with something."

This was when he was approaching junction 10 of the M6

where it was the first opportunity for him to come off the motorway.

He doesn't.

At this point, we knew that he wasn't going to stop.

Find out what happens later in the programme.

I see an explosion of light. He's flicked his main beam on.

It was then I realised it was a truck

coming towards us.

Now, it might look like I'm surfing the internet,

but believe it or not, I'm actually trying to catch a thief.

I'm using an online surveillance system that allows subscribers

to watch live CCTV feeds on behalf of shopkeepers.

If I see someone pinching from the shelves,

I simply hit the alert button and the shopkeeper instantly gets sent

a video clip of what I've just seen.

Better still, if I catch someone in the act,

I win a tenner.

But should you be worried about the idea of people snooping on you

whilst you shop, and does it actually catch the crooks?

This particular scheme is something of a pilot, but it does seem to prove

that ordinary members of the public can catch thieves.

So I want to meet a member of this secret army of crime fighters.

62-year-old Derek has several hits to his name.

He helps stem the tide of retail theft from his kitchen table.

Or his lounge sofa, come to that.

In fact, he's even caught criminals while he's doing the dishes.

-Hi, Adrian.

-How are you doing?

-Good to see you.

-Where is mission control? In the kitchen?

-Kitchen table.

What is this all about?

Isn't this you essentially you spying on people doing their shopping?

It's one way of looking at it, I suppose.

Yes, you can say, "Well, it's snooping, it's voyeurism,

"it's anything you want."

It is about curiosity.

About "what is that person doing, what's happening there?"

Do you ever find yourself staring at the screen,

inside willing people to do bad things?

I don't think I've ever done that,

but you can get engrossed in somebody's behaviour.

To me, honestly, Derek, I think this looks like just good fun,

trying to spot something bad when it happens and being the first to do it.

Absolutely. I mean, even now we're talking to each other,

I keep having a quick look, and even you're doing it,

-if I'm actually sitting here with you.

-I was quite excited about

someone trying to nick a bottle of red wine.

Let's hope it's a good one.

The potential for snooping is limited

because these sofa spies can't record footage, only monitor it live.

But can ordinary people like Derek really help shopkeepers?

Arul certainly thinks so.

He was losing thousands of pounds a year to shoplifters,

but since signing up to the online watchers,

ordinary members of the public have alerted him to more than 300 thefts.

It was a shock to me.

It ranges from 20 years old to 70 years old

and the worst bit is these are regular customers.

They were in my good books,

knowing my name and kid's name and all that.

They are the one on the game.

Disappeared, magician.

Shoplifters these days vary from cheese to wine bottles to deodorant.

Even Weetabix, believe it or not.

I had a guy stealing Weetabix. I thought, "He must be hungry."

Looked round, PG tea bags, there you go, bag.

Thank you very much.

Carry on casually as if nothing happened.

Back at Derek's, we've both got our eyes on a man by the newspapers.

Watch that magazine.

-See it's folded up down here.

-Yeah, yeah.

-There's his bag.

Let's see, it might be or it might not be.

He's going to walk out the shop now,

so we don't know quite what he's done with that magazine, you see.

If he re-emerges into the shop without the magazine,

he's bang to rights.

Yeah, we've got him.

There he goes.

With no sign of the magazine, Derek hits the alert button

and sends a message warning the shopkeeper of a possible theft.

Derek, I'm a digital super-sleuth.

Yep.

Believe it or not, the shopkeeper confirmed the theft.

He got his man and Derek got a tenner.

-See you soon.

-Cheers, Derek!

'So, an interesting, if slightly odd afternoon.'

-Keep dishing it out to the bad guys, Derek.

-Take care.

There are clearly privacy issues to wrestle with here,

but one thing's for sure -

technology like this really does catch crooks in the act.

Certain professions have always been vulnerable to crime.

With high-value products, jewellers are particularly at risk.

Nowadays, they have very sophisticated security systems,

but when armed robbers come calling,

it can still be a terrifying experience.

MUSIC: "Little Green Bag" by George Baker Selection

Family-run Kampala Jewellers have a shop on Leicester's Golden Mile,

the centre of the city's jewellery trade.

Up until recently, robberies in the area were a rare event.

If we look at the situation when we opened in 1977 up to 2009,

over a period of nearly 20-25 years, nothing's happened,

but since 2009, there's been about 13-14 attempts on shops here.

It seems the increase in raids was directly connected

to the price of gold.

Since the recession started about 2009,

gold prices were going up 20-30% year to year.

Some of these youngsters, they're looking for a quick buck

and we're the targets for it because our gold is very high value

and it's very, very easy to dispose of this type of gold.

There are people out there that will buy it.

With the rise in smash-and-grab raids on the Golden Mile,

Raj has become a vigilant observer.

So, one morning, seeing a car pull up outside his shop on yellow lines,

Raj became suspicious and alerted his brother Atul.

I see one lad walk out, the driver, and he's starting to walk next door.

I see, inside, the other guys pulling on balaclavas,

so I'm thinking, "Here we go.

"There's going to be a robbery here."

As these guys came out the car with the balaclavas,

they had a pickaxe and a samurai sword.

They immediately called the police,

but knowing it could be some time before help arrived,

Raj and his brother feared for the safety of their neighbours.

They've gone next door.

Do I do nothing? Then you think to yourself,

"No, we've got to go out there and we've got to help one another.

"We've got to help each other in the community."

Despite the extreme danger,

the two brothers tried to chase the robbers away.

I fixed my eye on the second guy with the sword.

I was shouting at him and screaming at him and saying,

"Get out, get out!"

He looked at me and then he's panicked and he ran,

so I ran after him.

As I was chasing him,

he dropped his sword near Doncaster Road and ran off.

Because they all scarpered, they ran away separate,

I think the driver ran away first,

so there was no opportunity for them

to get into that car to start it anyway.

DNA evidence and weapons were recovered soon after from the car.

The brothers' intervention helped to convict these three men

for a total of 28 years for raids on four jewellers.

I felt proud, because it was not about protecting something of mine,

but it was something to give back to the community that I'm very fond of.

But that wasn't the end of it.

Coming up later, the Golden Mile is hit again,

but this time it's Raj's shop that's targeted

and his brother isn't around to help.

You just haven't got time to think. You've got two options -

do I go for these guys or not?

Our computers and smartphones

are amongst our most valuable possessions.

And the thieves know it.

But these days they can be fitted with anti-theft tracking devices

in case they're stolen.

So how well do these things really work, and can they help you and me

provide the police with enough evidence to put a thief behind bars?

Ian Strudwick was about to find out.

His whole printer business was put in jeopardy

when he lost £3,000-worth of computer equipment to a burglary.

I was distraught.

I didn't really know what to do because I was helpless.

The computers are the lifeblood and without them you can't operate.

He decided to install the very latest tracking software

on his replacement machine.

We went to get these new computers and a member of staff mentioned

some software that could help protect us in future.

Once a computer is reported as stolen,

the software secretly switches itself on,

instructs the computer's camera to take pictures

and automatically e-mails these,

along with the GPS location, to the owner,

all with the thief completely oblivious to what's happening.

Over one in ten people are unlucky enough to be burgled more than once.

Ian is one of them.

A week later, he fell victim for a second time,

and just like before, his expensive computer was the target.

This time he was ready.

The only question was - would the secret software actually work?

The software was activated about an hour or so after the break-in.

And shortly after that,

an e-mail arrived containing the GPS location of his computer.

It was less than 30 miles away.

And just eight minutes later,

Ian received a picture taken from the computer's built-in camera.

MUSIC: "Just The Two Of Us" by Grover Washington Jr

To Ian's surprise, his stolen computer had e-mailed him

a picture of a couple in bed.

And every eight minutes, a new photo arrived.

To actually see the photos coming through, it's another world.

It's one ordinary people don't experience.

With this computer software, you're in their room.

You're watching them on their bed.

With photos of who had his computer arriving in real-time,

Ian immediately called Sussex Police.

Here's the couple possibly wondering why the police are at the door.

And here are the police in the room.

The final picture that the computer took before it was taken off

was a chap being handcuffed, and that made you feel happy, that did,

knowing that justice was done.

The man in the picture pleaded guilty to dishonest handling

of a computer and was given a six-month suspended sentence.

Earlier on, we saw how jeweller, Raj,

stepped in to prevent a robbery on his neighbour's store.

We've got to go out there and we've got to help one another.

We've got to help each other in the community.

But just six months later,

Raj was going to have to face another smash and grab.

This time, on his own shop.

As Raj's wife is buzzing a woman through the security door,

a gang of hammer-wielding men leap out of the van

and burst into the shop.

I thought, "I've got to protect my wife first",

and she was in a real panic, so I needed to calm her down

before I could think about the next step I'm going to take.

Raj and his wife take refuge in the back room,

and hit the panic button which instantly calls the police.

He could have stayed safe,

but as the robbers start plundering the shop,

Raj makes a bold, if rash, decision.

You just haven't got time to think. You've got two options -

do I go for these guys, or not?

It was just a matter of heads or tails, really, and I thought, "No, heads.

"I've got to go out there and I'm going to challenge these guys."

Using a baseball bat,

Raj attempts to force the robbers away from his counters.

For a second time, he puts himself in grave danger.

First thing was, "Am I doing the right thing?

"Should I be out here?

"Why am I out here?" as well I'm thinking to myself inside.

But then I'm just thinking to myself, "No, no, no.

"This is my stuff, it's my jewellery,

"my father's worked damn hard for this,

"and I ain't going to let these guys get away with it."

They go into shock, thinking, "Hold on, what's this guy doing?"

I don't think they were ready for that.

I thought, "I've got these guys on the back foot here,"

and they're scared more of me than I am scared of them as well,

so it was 50/50.

Next, Raj brings the shutters down in the shop,

hoping to trap the gang inside.

Now I thought, "All I need to do is just push them

"slightly away from my counters,

"and hopefully the shutter will shut and that'll give me enough time

"to go back in the office and lock ourselves in the safe room."

But the robber nearest the door suddenly spots the shutters dropping.

He's shouted to the other guys, "Get out, get out,"

but as they've gone, they've managed to grab two of my gents' ring trays

plus a couple of bracelets as well.

As soon as they've gone, I've just thought,

"I'm going to stop these guys."

As the gang make their escape, Raj takes another huge risk to stop them.

If I can somehow prevent this car moving,

hopefully the police will arrive, we can get these guys

and we can catch them,

so that's when I thought to myself, "I'm going to start smashing

"the windscreen" of this minivan that they had, a getaway van.

But his plan doesn't work and the robbers get away.

As I'm seeing this car move, I'm thinking, "Damn!

"They've got away with this", and they just managed,

from the crack in the windscreen, to drive the car.

They got away and that hurt me.

The thieves got away with around £30,000-worth of gold,

but Raj realises he also had a lucky escape that day.

I could have got injured, my wife could have got injured.

If it did go wrong...

..it could have been a serious threat to our lives.

Earlier, we told you about an equally terrifying situation -

a runaway lorry heading in the wrong direction down the M6.

This would require a risky intervention

by a member of the public if disaster was to be averted.

Every time it approached another vehicle,

it was like, "Oh, this could be it.

"Worst-case scenario -

"somebody's going to die here."

Less than half a mile away are truckers Simon Cotton

and Krystian Wilenski.

-"20mph - oncoming vehicle."

-I see signs to reduce speed limits.

I think, "Crap, traffic."

Simon had slowed to 20mph, but out of the darkness,

just 400 metres ahead of him,

he gets his first terrifying sight of the vehicle.

I see an explosion of light. He's flicked his main beam on.

It was then I realised it was a truck

coming towards us.

Simon knew if a lorry collided with a car, it could kill,

so he came up with a bold, if risky, plan.

I just made a snap decision, last minute, to move over and stop him.

A lorry here in the slow lane is almost at a standstill.

Thinking a collision with his truck

could prevent an even bigger accident,

Simon changes lane and pulls his lorry alongside to form a roadblock.

He was now head-to-head with the oncoming HGV.

We were watching it, thinking,

"If this doesn't stop it, I don't know what is going to stop him."

I sort of knew he was going to stop.

Well, it was more hope than anything, but...

Either he was going to stop or there was going to be a collision

and I would have a lot of explaining to do to my boss.

Fortunately for Simon, the driver stopped a few metres from his cab.

But the runaway trucker could still drive around him.

Simon knew he needed another lorry to make sure he couldn't escape.

200 metres back, Krystian Wilenski approached the scene.

I see two lorries that stay on the motorway

and they'd got their hazard lights on.

Krystian's arrived alongside me...

..and I looked out and gestured for him to pull alongside.

"Just block him in, mate."

With Krystian blocking the only other escape route,

the quick-thinking truckers had averted a potential disaster.

There was just so much relief in here that nobody had been killed

and eventually it had been stopped.

He gets out the vehicle. I asked him if he was all right.

In broken English he says, "Yeah, I'm OK."

You can smell some kind of alcohol or something.

The driver was Pal Korbely.

He'd spent the afternoon at the motorway services

and instead of a cup of tea,

he'd been tucking into home-made plum brandy.

He pleaded guilty to driving whilst under the influence

and was sentenced to eight months in prison

and banned from driving for three years.

Thanks to the bravery of Simon and Krys, no-one was hurt

and they were given a police commendation

and a £250 reward for their actions,

but both know it could have ended very differently.

Someone had to stop him. It was either a truck or a car.

A car wouldn't have stood much of a chance.

I'd do it again, I'd say, because you are not alone on the road.

If you'd not done it, then many people can be hurt.

Now, thankfully, not all crimes are life-threatening.

In fact, sometimes it can take a while to realise

you've been a victim of crime at all.

In our final story tonight, a bit of DIY detective work was needed

to get to the bottom of some mysterious goings-on

in a suburban back garden.

Leanne Burrell's trusty washing line has served her well for years.

I often hang my washing out at night

because if it's going to be a nice day tomorrow

and because I work all day,

it's best for me just to hang it out and get it out the way.

But suddenly her underwear started to disappear off the line.

I felt like I was going mad.

Every time I was saying to people, "I think my washing's being taken

"out of my garden", it was like, "Don't be so silly."

When you put a washing on, sometimes you only come out with one sock.

I was thinking, "Maybe that's what's happening.

"Maybe we've got a black hole somewhere in the washing machine."

A little while later,

Leanne made a discovery at the bottom of her garden.

There was three pieces of clothing.

One was a swimming costume, one was a pair of knickers

and one was a bra.

That's when I knew somebody was taking my underwear.

With a possible knicker thief on the prowl,

the Burrells called in the police.

The advice from the police was not to hang my washing out

of an evening and to perhaps get a tumble dryer.

But with washing going missing,

Leanne and husband Paul decided to lay a trap.

They bought two night-vision motion sensor cameras costing 70 quid each.

Legally, you can set up CCTV on your own property,

though pointing it at your neighbour's house should be avoided.

But when it came to bait, there was a small problem.

By this time, I had very little underwear left,

so I was beg, borrow and stealing from the neighbours

and from my family and friends to get different types of underwear

to hang on the washing line.

Big bras, little bras, tights, and I was thinking,

"Surely they're not going to go."

The trap was set.

Leanne would spend the night with a friend

while their husbands lay in wait.

We sat waiting, waiting and waiting, and I was laying on the sofa,

closing my eyes while he kept watch.

But he must have had five minutes just closing his eyes

and in that time, he'd been and gone.

I think, probably, they'd fallen asleep,

but they'll kill me for telling you that.

With the boys enjoying 40 winks, a man hops over the fence

and approaches the washing line.

Having forgotten his bag, the knicker thief decides

the best place to store his booty is down his pants.

When I got back and I looked outside the door and the boys said,

"No, he hasn't been" and I said, "Well, that's funny,

"cos we've got half the washing missing off our washing line."

With hard evidence of pants being pinched,

the Burrells decided to set the trap again that evening.

You're trying to go to work, do a day's work,

and it plays in your brain.

You're thinking, "I've got to get him, I've got to get him."

At twenty past one in the morning, a familiar figure appeared.

Suddenly, there he was, jumping over the fence.

I rang the police and said, "I've got an intruder in my garden."

I didn't know whether we could go out there and nick him

or what to do, really, cos it was quite frightening.

But with the police on their way and the thief making a run for it,

Paul and his mate head outside to find him.

It's not long before they come across the man

they've just seen on their CCTV.

We just went up to him and said, "What are you doing out

"at this time of night, mate?" He goes, "Oh, I couldn't sleep.

"Felt a bit rough." We went, "By the way, you're under arrest."

So we just waited for the Old Bill to do their job.

They turned up and they arrested him.

They strip-searched him on the corner of the road

and then found all the underwear down his pants.

I believe when they searched his bedroom

they found about 80 items of our clothing.

The knicker thief pleaded guilty and was ordered to pay £250

in compensation and do 100 hours in community payback.

Amazing what you can discover in your own back yard.

But remember, you can only film on your own property.

And I don't think you need to worry about anybody

stealing your pants from the washing line, lovely.

-And on that note, good night.

-Good night.