Episode 15 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

Burglaries are on the increase.

It's a real trauma for all of us.

Usually, only certain people move around in their vehicles at night.

That's taxi drivers, emergency service and, er, villains.

Thieves aren't just targeting the expensive gadgets in our homes,

they're taking our cherished heirlooms too.

Your home is your sanctuary. And nobody should be in your home.

Items impossible to replace.

Why go into someone's house and take away the things

that are most important, their security and their safety?

It's hard to take...

I don't think they've got any scruples.

..but these prized possessions are often recovered.

Get in there!

The police are on our side.

Come out of the door or we're going to put it through!

Police with a warrant, open the door!

Specialist anti-burglary units across the UK...

Come out now and make yourself known!

..working with the latest technology...

If your prints are at a crime scene, we are going to talk to you about it, and ask why.

..and the good citizens among us...

I did say I'd stop and make sure the whole family was all right.

..to track down the burglars

and get us back our stolen goods.

They took so much trouble.

Especially when he suddenly said, "Joyce! I've got the ring! Coming round with it."

It was fantastic.

It was really lucky.

-It's nice to get him back!

-SHE LAUGHS

This is Robbed, Raided, Reunited.

Thank you so much.

I feel very good, yeah.

So rewarding, such a happy day.

On today's programme -

the Somerset pensioner who became the latest person to have her exotic pets targeted.

When they were stolen, I was absolutely gutted.

I couldn't believe it really.

The audacious robbery of a priceless sculpture

leaves the local community stunned.

When I first heard of the theft,

I literally had a sharp intake of breath.

Absolutely devastated, can't believe it happened.

Goodness knows how much money they got for a lovely piece of work.

And we're with the police, as they crack down on crime wave

causing serious problems right across the country.

Very often, they're stealing

metal that may belong to municipal buildings,

or metal which may belong to utility companies.

It has a massive impact upon the public.

Britain is a nation of animal lovers,

but pet theft is on the increase

and that includes exotic and endangered creatures.

For over 30 years, Eileen Ford from Taunton,

has kept one particular breed of endangered species, tortoises.

I wanted a pet that was easy to care for.

And I saw some tortoises in a pet shop, and they looked really fascinating.

So, I bought one.

And we had a lot of pleasure out of it the first summer,

so the next year, we bought another one.

Over the next few years, those two tortoises were joined by 10 others,

who all became part of Eileen's extended family.

Although not cuddly, you can pick them up and hold them.

And stroke their heads.

And they do respond to you.

But that close-knit

relationship was suddenly shattered when, in May 2011,

Eileen woke up to find, not one, not two,

but all 12 of her beloved tortoises had been stolen.

They took the tortoises from the runs, down to the greenhouse,

put them into the cages,

took the cages through the garden,

right-hand side of the shed,

through the back of the shed,

and over the fence.

When they were stolen, I was absolutely gutted,

as you can imagine.

I couldn't believe it, really.

This was not just the theft of some family pets.

Tortoises are worth many hundreds of pounds.

Last year in the UK,

there were over 130 cases of stolen or missing tortoises.

Protected by law, the buying of a stolen tortoise can lead to a prison sentence.

But this has not stopped the theft of exotic and endangered animals

becoming one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK.

It's not the value of the animal that particularly perturbs us.

Anybody who steals any animal, it's the welfare of that creature,

and that was one of the main reasons we needed to get them back.

Because, you lose your breeding programmes.

And, obviously, whoever steals exotic animals in particular,

they don't know what to feed them on.

So it really is a welfare issue, it's not the monetary value.

John Hayward, a former senior police officer,

helped set up the National Theft Register for Exotic Animals

16 years ago. It was his organisation

that Eileen turned to for help in tracking down her precious pets.

It's possible that the thief might be local

and the animals therefore could still be in the Somerset area.

So, as we normally do, we put out press appeals,

and deal with the media

and, hopefully, give as much information to the public

to see if we can flush them out.

Eileen's friends also lent their support

by putting appeals on to social network sites,

and in the local press. There was an incredible response

and, within days, information started coming forward

about the tortoises. Even people

that bought them, not knowing they were stolen,

got in touch and started returning them.

Within two weeks, I did get 10 back.

But another two agonising weeks went by,

before John finally called Eileen again.

John contacted me again to say he had located the 11th one.

So, all in all, I'd got 11 back within three weeks.

The campaign to reunite Eileen with her pets have been

enormously successful. But, sadly, she is missing the smallest

and most vulnerable member of her tortoise family, Toby.

He does not gain enough body fat

to keep him healthy all over the winter.

Therefore, he cannot and must not be hibernated.

Eileen can only hope that Toby did go to a caring home,

and is in good hands.

And, to get 11 out of the 12 tortoises back

is seen as a major success for John Hayward.

Eileen is so incredibly fortunate that we've had such a result.

It's the most successful result of any animal investigation

as far as tortoises are concerned.

I'm really, really happy to have my tortoises back.

Life wouldn't be the same without them.

Coming up -

Thieves aren't just stealing pets from domestic homes and gardens,

they're becoming even more daring by breaking into zoos.

There's no doubt they've been here previously,

and they've sussed it,

and it was planned and it was premeditated.

But first,

covering over 71 acres,

Dulwich Park in south London is a source of huge pride

to members of the local community.

Like Trevor Moore, of the Dulwich Park Friends Association.

Dulwich Park was established in 1890, in the late Victorian period,

and was laid out with trees that included

some left over from one of the Great Exhibitions at the time.

When it was created, it was dedicated as a park for the people forever.

And it's certainly lived up to that name.

Visitors to the park agree with that endorsement.

We actually use the park quite a lot,

particularly at weekends, coming out for exercise and strolling,

and just being able to use a green space really.

Apart from its natural features, the park also boasted

an original work by the celebrated British sculptor Barbara Hepworth.

Acknowledged as one of the 20th century's most accomplished sculptors,

Barbara Hepworth's work is exhibited all over the world.

So, when Southwark Council managed to acquire one of her works,

entitled, Two Forms (Divided Circle), in 1970,

it was a major coup.

I think thousands of people know it,

almost everybody who comes to the park must be familiar with it.

Some people obviously like it, some people don't like it.

I think most people actually are quite intrigued by it.

It wasn't just adults who took the sculpture to their hearts.

It soon became a firm favourite among children.

The children play with it quite a lot,

and that's a learning process, isn't it? Little kids, big kids.

They all use it as a thing to look through and enjoy as well.

It's for all ages.

Barbara Hepworth herself

was said to be very pleased with the setting here in Dulwich.

And it really has become part of the park.

But that special bond was shattered

when, on the morning of 20 December 2011,

council workmen discovered that the seven-foot high sculpture,

weighing an estimated half a ton,

had been stolen.

This is the Rosary Gate, which is where I'm told that thieves entered.

They would have cut one of these padlocked chains,

opened up the gate...

..and, presumably, it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to work out

that they drove the van along the path here...

..over towards where the sculpture is based.

And brought the van along the path to here.

Slightly onto the grass, because some tyre tracks were left.

And would have used an angle grinder to cut the sculpture off.

Put it in the van,

and exit, following the route that they entered.

With the police chasing all leads to find out

who had committed the crime,

even the media took up the story about the theft.

But it was the local community,

who knew and loved the sculpture, that felt the loss the hardest.

I was absolutely outraged because, how could anyone do that?

It's a public sculpture!

We were absolutely shocked.

We thought it was sacrilege to have taken this,

as it's been in the park for nearly 50 years.

And we've grown up just knowing it and liking it.

Such was the outcry about the theft

that Peter John, from Southwark Council, stepped in

to try and get the sculpture back.

In terms of our response to this left, we offered a reward.

We were really pleased that the Barbara Hepworth estate came forward

and increased that reward to £5,000.

The sculpture was insured by the council

for over half a million pounds.

But that might not have been the reason why it was stolen.

The sculpture was made of bronze,

and that could have been its downfall.

The scrap metal would have a value of £750.

So it's entirely depressing that people, without a conscience,

would have taken this away from the community

for such a small amount of money.

But then, I guess, is doesn't matter to them at all.

Worldwide metal prices are going through the roof,

making metal theft more common than ever.

Last year, over 7,500 tons of metal were stolen from railways,

monuments and even church roofs.

But metallic art theft is still very new.

We are used to metal thefts across all the properties that we own.

People stealing bits of metal, and selling them on for scrap.

What we're not used to seeing is really important pieces of artwork

being sawn away from their base, and sold, as in this case.

No-one has so far been caught

for the theft of Barbara Hepworth's sculpture

and local residents fear the worst.

Obviously, this was taken by criminals.

And, the way that the scrap metal trade operates at the moment,

makes it all too easy for people like that to operate.

One can imagine that they must have got

a relatively small amount of money for it,

because it would have then been melted down and sold on.

But, despite their anger, the local community turned to

how best to fill the gap left by the sculpture's theft.

Like any sad story, we're hoping this is going to have a happy ending

because I've been bombarded with suggestions from people.

A sculptor in New York has offered to donate is sculpture.

And even local schoolchildren have come up with ideas.

Well, my idea is to make a bigger version of this.

I'm not sure it would be big as the actual one that was stolen.

But I'm hoping it's nearly as big.

Everyone in the school would take a little tile,

not as big as these,

because we'd have to fit a lot in. Because this is made with cement,

it wouldn't be stolen again,

which is what, I think, would be really good.

I'm sure, whatever they replace it,

will bring loads of enjoyment over the coming years.

And let's hope that it doesn't happen again.

Metal theft,

like that of the Hepworth sculpture,

is now estimated to be worth over £750 million a year.

But, police forces and other agencies throughout the UK

aren't taking this lying down.

It's early morning,

and Detective Sergeant Richard Comins, of Lincolnshire Police

is briefing his officers on a new initiative

called Operation Brompton.

An awful lot of criminals have cottoned on to the idea

that they can steal metal, they can weigh it in at scrap yards

with a minimum of checks under the Scrap Metal Dealers Act,

and that metal is extremely valuable.

It's a rapidly growing problem right across the country,

and Lincolnshire is no different to anybody else.

Today, the police are focusing on the town of Horncastle,

because there are three scrap metal yards in the area.

The objective of this is not to target scrap metal dealers

in Horncastle. The objective is to try and stop

and catch people taking suspected stolen items to those yards.

Operation Brompton started in May 2011.

And today, police will patrol all roads leading into Horncastle.

With 20 officers divided into teams, Detective Sergeant Richard Comins

is determined that no one will slip through the net.

As you can imagine, people involved in criminality

are very wise, very quickly, to police tactics.

And, as well as the three static checkpoints,

we've also got some roving vehicles

that are looking at the back roads, for example, you can see one here.

They are obviously there to pick up any potential people

that are using the back roads to come in, as opposed to the main roads.

With three checkpoints in place,

vans, estate cars and large 4x4s are pulled over

to be checked out for any scrap metal.

-What's in the back?

-BLEEP nothing.

-Is it all right to have a look?

-Yeah.

-Do you want to look. Or do you want me to come out?

-Come out.

Each vehicle is searched and checked with the Police National Computer.

If clear, it's sent on its way.

It may appear a time-consuming process,

but its importance is not lost on the officers.

Very often they are stealing

metal that may belong to municipal buildings,

or metal may belong to utility companies.

There is a perception sometimes that this is a victimless crime.

This is far from it.

This has a massive cumulative effect on the community.

You may knock out internet access,

you may knock out telephone communications for communities.

So, it has a massive impact upon the public.

Stopping the vehicles en route

is only one way to fight the metal thieves.

As part of Operation Brompton, police are also checking

that the scrap metal dealers themselves are doing all they can

to identify stolen metal.

A lot of stolen items come through scrap yards,

sometimes unbeknown to them, they're not sure that they're stolen.

We're doing routine checks on all scrap yards,

this being one of them, just to check if anything's stolen,

and try to identify if they are,

to see if we can recover them and identify the offenders.

Apart from metal stolen from municipal buildings,

the largest theft is wire stolen from British Telecom, and railways.

It's estimated nearly four million rail passengers were disrupted

last year, due to wire theft. Because it's almost impossible

to identify the ownership of metal, once it's been cut up,

the police have a revolutionary new weapon

in the battle against the thieves. It's a process

where a manufacturer applies a specially treated liquid

on to its products. The liquid holds a unique code number,

which can be identified by an infrared reader.

The code number can then be checked on the police database,

against any stolen metal.

Conducting a search at this Horncastle scrap yard is

Bjorn Campbell-Lyons.

Basically, all I'm looking at, at the moment,

is the different varieties of cable.

We look for the actual marking, physical markings,

names on the cable itself.

Without any specific markings,

it's very, very difficult to identify where it actually comes from.

The next thing that we look for is the smart water traces

that could have been put onto cable, on lead roofs.

Cable belonging to Network Rail, BT Open Reach, that kind of thing.

In this yard, there was no trace of any stolen metal.

And, for scrap metal dealers like Andrew Riddel,

identifying any suspicious metal is an ongoing problem.

It is blooming hard work,

because a piece of copper tube is a piece of copper tube.

A copper tank's a tank. If an ornament comes in,

say it's the eagle stolen out of a church,

you would probably, well, you would, you'd quiz it.

But now, we've ironed it all out.

We know who's legit and who's not, within reason.

You just have to take their word for it,

take their registration and name down.

That's all we can do, really.

But then, we're a victim as well to it.

Back at the checkpoints,

officers from Operation Brompton are intensifying their search of vehicles.

Can I have a look around your vehicle, see what you're carrying?

-Just some work tools.

-Oh, right, OK.

Suddenly, a vehicle loaded with scrap metal is spotted by DS Comins.

The a vehicle here, can you see the white flatbed?

The white flatbed, gone that way, looked to be full of scrap metal.

Further down the road,

a second police checkpoint stops the suspect vehicle.

This is a typical load.

As you can see, there is bits of everything.

They've obviously got barbed wire here.

All the bits of wire, an old bike.

Lead, potentially.

-I take it you know why you've been stopped?

-Oh yeah, we always get stopped.

-Yeah, yeah.

As you know, it is a major problem.

We're basically running these things all the time.

What will happen is we'll have a look at your load.

Somebody from the Environment Agency.

You've got a waste carriage licence, all that sort of stuff?

We'll have a look at that. If you just bear with us

and we'll do those checks, OK?

The checks come back that the man has a record

of being involved in previous thefts.

However, this time, both he and his load of scrap metal are clean.

For police, stop and search is still a valuable tool.

Even if we don't do anything with these people,

if they are legitimate, it's very interesting, from our perspective

and from an intelligence point of view, as to who these people are,

where they're coming from, where this load has come from,

which scrap metal yard they're intending on going to.

All of that is a wealth of intelligence

that we can then use on a later day.

But, suddenly, the police's initial

reason to stop the truck appears justified

when they find in metal cutter in the vehicle's cab.

We've got one or two concerns about that, which is why

the officers are questioning this chap now.

As to where it's come from.

It's marked up to a hire company in Newark.

So, we're checking that out now.

The other thing about a disc cutter,

particularly with what we're looking at,

is this is an ideal piece of kit to cut up cabling.

Not saying that they are, but that's something they could use.

When questioned, the man denies that the cutter is his.

You're saying you've collected it for a friend, have you?

-For some friends, yeah.

-So, when did you go and do that then?

I've had it now for...

this week, and I had a job last Friday.

Not convinced by the man's story,

the police investigate further who the cutter belongs to.

Somebody's hired it out. Neither of these two.

And it's not been returned.

And it's over £1,500 worth of hire on it.

-Are we going to have him, then?

-Yeah.

Somebody's rented it out, and not returned it.

But the name that it's been rented out in,

is not the name of the person we've got here.

So it definitely doesn't belong to him.

Still unable to give a plausible explanation as to who owns the cutter,

the man is arrested.

We'll take him back to the police station,

question him about it to see whether he's got it legitimately or not.

With the man being taken into custody,

it's been a good stop for the officers of Operation Brompton.

Earlier, we saw 73-year-old Eileen Ford

reunited with 11 rare tortoises stolen from her garden.

But, even more disturbing is the fact that

burglars are now stealing rare species of animals from zoos.

In November 2008,

thieves broke into the Cotswold Wildlife Park, in Oxfordshire.

They went straight for the squirrel monkey enclosure.

John Hayward, of the National Theft Register for Exotic Animals,

believes it was a targeted theft.

The night that this squirrel monkey was stolen,

obviously, the thieves had been here before and had sussed the place out.

Because they came in, they forced the door here that you see.

Again, smashed through the mesh...

..over to the door leading into the squirrel monkey house...

..and then removed, stole, the grandmother squirrel monkey.

The reason for stealing it? Well, it could have been taken as a pet.

But they're wild animals.

It could have been stolen to turn into money to sell. Who knows.

Squirrel monkeys can command four-figure prices,

but only if they are young.

But, in their haste, these thieves took two older females of the troop.

Zoo keeper Mark's concern was not only the effect on the two females taken,

but also on the monkeys left behind.

It was quite a big impact within the group.

Obviously, one of the older animals was stolen.

And it was very important to get it back within the group,

because it built up the family structure.

The people who stole it had no idea what they were stealing,

because they wouldn't want to steal an animal of that age.

It was very important to get it back into the group to form the stabling factor.

Because one of the stolen monkeys was the mother of an infant,

keepers had to try and rear it by hand.

Despite massive newspaper and TV coverage, after a couple of days,

all hope of recovering the stolen monkeys was fading fast.

But, suddenly, the zoo received an anonymous phone call

from someone who had bought the monkeys for £400,

and wanted a reward for their safe return.

We were reluctant to pay the reward, we didn't want to get involved.

Two hours later, the caller rang with a tip-off,

saying he'd abandon the monkeys near a disused factory site.

Me and curator went out to collect the animal

from where the bloke said he'd left it.

It was in an empty recycling box.

We found the animal curled up on the floor, distressed.

Obviously quite thirsty when we brought it back in.

It might have been there a while. We have no idea how long.

When we came back, we returned it to the enclosure into a warm pen, warmed it up.

And then, the next day, we reintroduced it back into the group

which, thankfully, went very successfully.

It's always a risk reintroducing an animal, but it went really well.

Although exotic animal thefts from zoos are extremely rare,

thefts from collectors are on the increase.

In the past year,

animals such as parrots, ring-tailed lemurs

and meerkats, have been stolen.

The thieves that stole the two squirrel monkeys were never found.

John Haywood believes the law needs to be tougher on thieves,

as their crimes are not simple robberies, but kidnapping.

It's like taking a baby from a family.

For the thieves, whenever they're arrested and charged before the court,

then we have an opportunity to explain to the magistrates

or the judges what a cruel act it is to take somebody's animal from them.

They should always go to prison, there should be custodial sentences.

And people do go to prison, not because of the value of the animal,

but because of the dreadful thing that they've done

in respect of its welfare.

No-one has been charged with stealing Eileen's tortoises,

but the 11 she had returned are thriving.

Police decided there wasn't enough evidence

to charge the man with the metal cutter, and he was released.

But Operation Brompton has so far resulted in over 40 arrests.

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