Episode 1 Fightback Britain

Across Britain, you're capturing the evidence.

I felt enough was enough.

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's 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 catching car thieves or exposing career criminals.

'And immediately, the till is open and he's taken the money.'

The audacity to do that.

We'll show you how you're turning the tables on the law-breakers.

And helping the police catch the crooks.

Welcome to Fightback Britain.

This week, a gang of motorbike thieves

get more than they bargained for.

I just had to act. It was purely a case of, I've got to get involved,

this isn't happening.

A woman hangs a knicker thief out to dry after her pants are pinched.

When all of a sudden I heard that bang on the fence, I was like,

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

And we show you how you can get your own back on the phone snatchers.

Time to put my thief under a bit of pressure.

-COMPUTERISED VOICE:

-'I'm coming to get you, ha-ha-ha.'

Oh, my word, how do I stop this? This is slightly freaking me out.

Read it and weep!

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

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

Over the next four weeks, 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 on to 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.

HORN BLASTS

Our first story started with an alert to Ross Philips

at the M6 motorway control room.

Five hours into the shift, we had reports coming into the control room

that there was an HGV travelling southbound

on the northbound carriageway, basically into incoming traffic.

I started to look on the CCTV cameras that we have 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 of 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.

Straightaway, we dispatch officers,

giving them live updates on its location and its progress,

and 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.

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 is always changing.

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

# Well, I'm so tired of crying

# But I'm out on the road again

# I'm on the road again... #

Also on the road was trucker, Krystian Wilenski.

# But I'm out on the road again... #

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

Typical shift for me is ten hours, sometimes more.

I came to drive here 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, 284 horsepower 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.

EMERGENCY OPERATOR: 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.

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 ten of the M6.

Where it was the first opportunity to come off the motorway, he doesn't.

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

Later in the programme...

I see an explosion of light. He was flicking his main beam on,

and it was then I realised it was a truck coming towards us.

HORN BLARES

Thankfully, few of us will ever have to face a runaway lorry,

but sadly, thousands of us will have our mobile phones stolen.

These days, smartphones contain more than just contacts.

There are photos, passwords, sometimes even bank details.

And they can be worth hundreds of pounds.

There's a thriving black market,

so no wonder these little things are hot property for thieves.

Today in Britain,

almost half of all robberies now involve a mobile phone.

And it often happens like this.

In London alone, around 300 mobile phones are stolen every single day.

No, sir, you won't be seeing that again.

It seems there's little we can do to fight back. Or is there?

In fact, you can now make life very uncomfortable for phone snatchers.

New anti-theft software

allows you to track your phone without the thief knowing.

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

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

'I'm going to have a little bit of fun with Adrian finding out.'

-Morning.

-Morning, Julia, how are you doing?

-I'm very well.

-Can I have a cup of tea?

-No time, I'm afraid.

-Why, what's going on?

-Give me your hand.

-Hmm, like this?

There we go. That is my brand-new, all-singing, all-dancing smartphone.

You shouldn't have. What happens now?

Now...you play the thief.

You've nicked my smartphone out of my handbag.

I'm giving you a 30-minute head start and then I'm on your tail.

You're crazy in the coconut. That won't work. It's London, I can hide.

Try me.

I shall see you later. Or not, as the case may be.

Oh, you'll see me.

Adrian's got half an hour to get as far away from me as possible.

-TAXI DRIVER:

-Where to, mate?

-Anywhere. I'm trying to hide, just take me anywhere.

-Right you are.

Time to find out whether this software really works

by tracking Adrian's movements.

Right, I'm logged on and I have started tracking.

So I can actually see where Adrian is now.

There he is, he's just a little blue blob.

I just can't believe that there isn't somewhere I can hide

where Julia won't be able to find me. I just can't believe it.

He's actually taking quite a nice little tour around London.

Hyde Park...

Very predictable. Houses of Parliament.

Thanks to the software, I've mapped out Adrian's route.

Now, I'm going to raise the stakes and hunt down my prey.

Right, let's go find him.

Sounding confident, Julia. We'll see how you get on later.

Of course, if your phone is stolen with this software on it,

you shouldn't chase down the thief yourself.

Instead, providing police with the information

can help them track down the thieves.

As Ian Strudwick knows all too well.

He's kept the presses rolling at Kenads Printers for over 20 years.

But a burglary where £3,000 worth of computer equipment was stolen

put his business in jeopardy.

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

The computers are our lifeblood.

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 there 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 a 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.

Shortly after, 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.

SONG: "Just The Two Of Us"

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.

# Building castles in the sky

# Just the two of us... #

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's the police in the room.

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

was the chap being handcuffed.

And that really made you feel happy, that did.

You know, 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.

Meanwhile I'm still trying to find Adrian, who has my mobile.

The bad news for him is that the anti-theft app on the phone

seems to be working.

And I'm hot on his tail.

Cheers, Dave. Keep the change. See you, bye.

Well, I think I've come far enough in a taxi,

so it's time to say goodbye to Dave and his cab,

and lose myself - immerse myself - in the London masses.

So I think I know the direction he's heading in,

time to put my thief under a bit of pressure.

I'm going to send him a message.

-ELECTRONIC VOICE:

-I'm coming to get you ha-ha-ha.

My word, how do I stop this? This is slightly freaking me out.

-ELECTRONIC VOICE:

-I'm coming to get you...

It's on repeat, and I can't stop it.

He must be freaking out by now.

So... let's take a picture.

CAMERA SHUTTER CLICKS

Oh, dear, there he is.

That's not flattering.

Although, to be fair,

not very many people take a good picture when it's up the nostril.

That's a bit better.

God, I thought I had a big nose.

According to my tracker, Adrian is here by the river,

and judging by the speed at which he's moving, he's on foot.

My app says Adrian's here at the British Film Institute,

perhaps to watch a sophisticated French art-house movie.

-Could I have a beer please, mate?

-Sure.

-'Or maybe not.'

I know he's in there somewhere,

but finding him in a building of this size could be tricky.

So for my final trick, I'm going to set off a very noisy alarm...

that will hopefully lead me right to him.

SIREN Oh, God.

SIREN INTENSIFIES

I can hear him.

I can hear him!

I can smell him.

There you are - thief, thief!

Can you make your phone behave?

-Having a quiet drink, are we?

-I was, yeah. I'm glad to see you.

SIREN STOPS

THEY SIGH

-That's better.

-That really is better.

-So how was it for you?

I'm well and truly tracked down.

As well as sending you messages,

I could also take pictures of you.

You've got to give that to me.

You don't want to go public with that picture.

I think I need to go to bed earlier.

So, completely without your knowledge,

snapping away just to try and see, locate you, where you are

and what you look like, more importantly.

It's good hard evidence to pass on to the police

who then can try and secure a conviction.

And I think the clever thing about it is I can do this

without putting myself at risk.

-Julia, I surrender to you and the technology.

-I knew you would.

Today, people are using all sorts of gadgets to fight back against crime,

everything from electronic door locks to motion-sensor cameras.

But, occasionally, some of you find yourselves with nothing

but your own muscle to rely on in order to prevent a crime.

Take these motorcycle shop workers

who put themselves at a huge personal risk.

Paul Read and Adrian Couzens were managing two bike stores

in St James Road, Croydon -

a street full of bikes, bikes and more bikes.

It's a kind of community place for bikers to come and meet up

and chew the fat, really.

We all work together, and help out each other when and where we can.

But last year, community spirit was tested to the limit

when they came under attack.

It started on a warm Monday afternoon

when Paul was about to shut up his shop.

Six lads turned up on sports bikes, which is nothing unusual, come in,

crash helmets on, wouldn't take them off,

which kind of put my back up a little bit.

Just hanging around the sports bikes and the Panigales, especially.

Kind of sense of unease, because you don't normally get en masse

and they won't take their crash helmets off.

You normally get a couple but not en masse like they were.

When they left I felt a bit of relief because they'd gone.

I'd hoped it would be the last I'd see of them,

but obviously as events transpired, the next day, it wasn't!

The following day, it was business as usual.

It had been a reasonably busy day - a few lookers,

and we're coming near the end of the day,

so I was just getting a fax off the fax machine...

But at quarter to five

Paul's customer's from the previous day were back.

And today they'd come with a shopping list.

I heard the door buzzer go, voices, stuck my head round the door,

and there's two guys helping themselves to two Panigales.

It was obvious that they wanted the bikes

without putting an order in first, really.

With no-one on hand to help,

Paul's best option was to let them leave with the goods.

But with a rush of blood to the head,

he single-handedly tries to stop the gang of six.

I just had to act. It was just purely a case of,

"I've got to get involved. This isn't happening, not today."

The odds weren't looking good.

But events hadn't gone unnoticed

by Adrian in his shop across the road.

I looked over and I could see that the front wheel

was starting to come out.

My first thought was, "Where's Paul?"

Adrian sensibly triggers an alarm

to the police but then sets off to help his friend.

The next thing I know I see a flash of white come running past the door

with an arm out - which was Adrian coming to my rescue.

It was just a reaction.

There wasn't really a thought process behind...

this could happen, that could happen,

they could be carrying weapons.

I noticed a guy, sat on the forecourt on a scooter,

and I started to push him off his scooter to try and keep him here

while the police are on the way.

With Adrian coming running across there was a kind of,

"Good, I'm not on my own, maybe we can sort this out,

"maybe we can handle this."

But that wasn't the end of it.

That's when the hammers and metal bars come out so it was,

we're unarmed, they're armed,

just kind of like step back, try and,

you know, not get our heads beaten in.

At one point one of the guys comes at me with a metal bar

and you see me back off. The reason I went to where I did

was because I knew there was an alleyway that I could get down.

Paul and Adrian were now in serious danger.

But watch the top left of your screen.

Two guys from a third bike shop sprinted over to lend a hand.

When I saw them coming, I did feel relieved

cos we're back to three, four people on our side, against the six of them

and some of them have already started to flee the scene.

As the gang make their escape and with still no sign of the police,

Adrian tries to slow them down.

I went back after the guy that had got back on to his scooter,

and pushed him off for a second time.

Unknown to me, the first time I'd pushed him off, I broke my wrist.

And as they're leaving, I get a metal bar thrown at me

which hits me across the back of the shoulder and the back of the head,

which knocks me down, basically.

The boys from the bike shops had prevented the theft

of £50,000 worth of motorcycles.

But it could have ended in tragedy.

It wasn't until later that you get a sense of,

"I've actually been lucky here. Someone's been looking out for me."

Cos it could have been me in a hospital bed somewhere,

or being fed through a tube.

The boys know their actions were risky,

but they're grateful they could count on each other when it mattered most.

I would definitely stick up for my friends - again, no questions asked.

There's not many bikers around, but you do get a sense of

we'll all help each other,

whether it's at the side of the road with a puncture

or whether it's trying to stop some thieving little oiks.

Earlier we told you about an equally terrifying situation -

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

This would also 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.

As the truck passes just inches from another HGV,

it seemed only a serious collision would bring this runaway lorry

to a halt.

Less that half a mile away

are truckers Simon Cotton and Krystian Wilenski.

The matrix sign flashes up, "20mph, oncoming vehicle."

I see a sign to reduce speed limit -

I think, "Crap, traffic!"

So I need to move over here, to give myself some visibility,

some reaction time.

Simon had slowed to 20 miles an hour.

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 the 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 was 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 had 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.

200m back, Krystian Wilenski approached the scene.

I see two lorries that stay on the motorway,

and they've got hazard lights on.

Krystian's arrived alongside me.

And I looked out and gestured for him to pull alongside and just,

"Block him in, mate."

With Krystian blocking the only other escape route,

the quick-thinking truckers had averted a potential disaster.

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

and eventually it had been stopped.

He gets out the vehicle I ask 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 sentenced to eight months in prison,

and banned from driving for three years.

Thanks to the bravery of Simon and Chris, 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.

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

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

I would do it again the same,

because you are not alone on the road.

If we had not done it,

then many people get hurt.

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

In fact, sometimes it can take a while to realise

that 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 of the way.

But suddenly her underwear started to disappear off the line.

I felt like I was going mad, and every time I was saying to people,

"I think my washing is being taken out of my garden,"

they were like, "Don't be so silly."

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

I was thinking maybe that's what's happened,

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.

And 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 still 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, borrowing 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 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 and waiting and waiting,

and then I was laying on the sofa and closed my eyes

while he kept watch.

But then he must have had five minutes of closing his eyes

and in that time he'd been and gone.

I think probably they'd fallen asleep,

but they'd 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, the boys said,

"No, he hasn't been, and I said, "That's funny because we've got half

"the washing missing off the washing line."

With hard evidence of pants being pinched,

the Burrells decided to set the trap again that evening.

Trying to go to work, do a day's work, and it plays on your brain,

and you're thinking,

"I've got to do it, I've got to get him, got to get him."

At 20 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.

So we just went up to him and said,

"What you doing out here at this time of night?"

He goes, "Oh, I couldn't sleep, and I felt a bit rough."

"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.

And then stripped searched him on the corner of the road,

and 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.

Next week, armed robbers are foiled not once, but twice....by OAPS!

If you're right in the centre of it,

you don't think, you just get on with it, I think.

Things go horribly wrong for two have-a-go-heroes.

And at that point I said, "You're bleeding quite badly."

He looked at me and said, "Not as bad as you."

And a vicar stages a midnight stakeout to catch metal thieves.

I felt enough was enough.

Subtitles By Red Bee Media Ltd