Episode 18 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

Every single minute, there's a burglary in the UK.

Oh, my jewellery! Oh, no!

It's an invasion of your personal space.

Somebody has been in your house going through your stuff.

It's not just your expensive gadgets that are under threat,

it's your priceless, irreplaceable heirlooms, too...

What's that football expression? You feel gutted.

..items of huge sentimental value.

Dad was very proud of his entire career in the Fire Service,

so to have the medals stolen, I know he was devastated.

It can be a difficult time...

What's that saying? An Englishman's home is his castle.

..but dedicated teams of police are on the case...

-Police!

-Police!

..with specialist burglary units across the country

chasing down the villains...

-Just calm it down.

-Let us do our checks.

..using every high-tech tool at their disposal,

working with the good Samaritans among us...

-Would you recognise him if you saw him?

-I probably would.

..to make sure justice is done.

Their ultimate aim,

to recover your prized possessions...

We're dancing.

I just found a bag of sat navs.

..and return them to you.

It's amazing, the work they've done.

And we got all our stuff back!

I'm very pleased with the police and they've been so good and kind.

I have nothing but gratitude for the efforts they've made.

This is Robbed, Raided, Reunited.

Thank you so much.

Thank you so much.

Thank you ever so, ever so much.

Coming up,

police track down a British athlete's precious competition bike

after it's stolen...

You just feel quite helpless.

I've lost something more than a bike.

-Oh, this is how they've left it?

-Yeah.

Oh, my God!

..officers go to help when burglars target

a family's jewellery passed down through generations...

There was a diamond engagement ring up there.

That was going to be Libby's as and when she could wear it.

..and the hunt for masked raiders

caught on CCTV carrying out an audacious robbery.

I got a phone call to say my car had been stolen.

It's a total shock.

First time I've ever had anything stolen from me.

Louise Reynolds is one of Britain's top triathletes.

Triathlons consist of a one and a half kilometre swim,

a ten kilometre run

and a 40 kilometre cycle.

It's not an event for the faint-hearted.

It's a huge dedication in terms of hours,

because you're doing around nine hours' training a week,

sometimes twice a day.

Training for the triathlon comes at a price,

not just in the vast amount of commitment from the athlete,

but also in the specialised, expensive equipment they require.

The only way I could afford it was, for me, very unfortunate

in that my mum died...

and, obviously, as a result of the estate,

I was able to buy and invest in the absolute bike of my dreams.

Those dreams were shattered when, on New Year's Eve,

Louise's partner broke some terrible news.

That morning, I just saw him come round the corner

absolutely ashen faced, just...

And I thought, "Oh, God, what's happened?"

And he just came and said, "The bikes are gone."

Louise's bikes had been stored in a garage

around the back of her property.

We've got two garages.

And...

We just see...

I mean, I've got the locks in my hand

and the locks were just... everything was taken off.

All the metalwork was gone.

And it was just...

That was when I found....

and I just came in here and sat down on the treadmill,

cos everything of value was gone.

Although Louise had good, secure locks

and motion sensors around her garage,

the thief had overcome all these.

They'd taken two of Louise's competition bikes

and one that belonged to her partner.

Their value was over £7,000.

It was just...

just terrible. Just... I just...

I can remember, I didn't cry. You're just too shocked to cry.

But it's just this terrible, empty feeling.

For Louise, it was not just the loss of her bikes that upset her,

it was also the emotional tie they had to her mother.

It's just so awful, you know,

this is Mum's money...

and you just feel quite helpless, really.

But there's absolutely nothing that you can do

and you're faced with this half-empty garage.

With over 100,000 cycle thefts a year,

the chances of ever seeing her bikes again looked faint.

The first day when I reported it, they came out

and took the details and were aware of the value of the bikes.

They said, "Well, they're very portable items, they move very fast,"

and so they held little hope out for finding anything,

which I'd kind of...

If you set yourself up for the worst, you're not going to be disappointed.

To reunite Louise with her bike,

investigating robbery squad officer Richard Jones

knew something special had to happen.

We attend a lot of burglaries where property has been taken.

Unfortunately, it's very difficult to try and trace that property.

Because it is a stolen bike,

we wanted to act on it as soon as we could

because we don't know where that bike may go on to.

Police obtained photographs of the bikes from Louise

and launched their investigation.

But being a competitive athlete,

Louise wasn't going to just sit around

and wait to see what happened.

I rang a local radio station and they kindly interviewed me

and put that repeatedly on their news segments.

The local paper were interested in that

and they put it on their front page.

I also put it on my Facebook page.

So there were not many people who didn't know about it.

So it made it quite hot property.

It's very distinctive, there's only one like it,

so if you turned up at a race and, let's face it,

it's the type of bike that you don't go to the shop on,

people would know.

After ten days and despite all of Louise's efforts,

there still was no news about her stolen bikes.

I just realised that, you know, something like that,

if I hadn't heard within a week, I wasn't going to get it back.

So, I was thinking,

"I'm just going to miss this season because I don't want to train."

You just feel so low.

Amazingly, after an agonizing two-week wait,

Louise's perseverance finally paid off

when the police received a phone call.

The information given to us was from anonymous sources,

the people didn't wish to be named.

However, they did give us the name of the person

they believed was in possession of the bike

and the address where they believed the bike was being kept.

The anonymous information pointed the police

to a house 30 miles away from where Louise lived.

Sergeant Wooley of the West Mercia force

immediately put a specialist raid team together.

My role was briefing the team about how we would to enter the place,

recovering the property, securing it

and preserving it for any forensic examination.

In this particular case, we did have two or three people

confirming what information we had been given.

Our next step is then to get a warrant for the address

to be able to enter the property.

First thing Friday,

a warrant was obtained from the Magistrates' Court.

We weren't aware whether the person would be in that property

or how many people there would be inside it.

Once we'd gathered the officers together, a team of eight and two dog handlers,

we attended the property on the Friday afternoon.

There was no-one there, but with the power of the warrant,

we forced the main door to the premises.

-Police!

-Police!

There were two dogs inside, which were secured by our dog handlers

and then a systematic search took place of the address.

In case the thieves had already stripped Louise's bike down,

police hunted everywhere for any parts.

Throughout the search, Louise was kept updated on the progress made.

You're kind of compelled to think it's there, but also thinking,

"Actually, be careful,"

because you don't want to set yourself up for disappointment.

So it's quell the emotions, really.

Room by room, the search team went through the house.

Upstairs, two doors were also locked,

so they, again, had to be forced.

Last room that we actually got into, where the bike was situated.

Finally, Louise received the call

she thought she would never get.

He said, "Is that the owner of a Cervelo bike?"

And he said it in a different way, and I said,

"You've got it, haven't you? You've really got it!"

And he said, "Yeah, we've got it."

Just one of those moments in life when you go from down there

to way up there, because you've got something back

and you can race and do everything you wanted.

Great, yeah.

After forensic testing Louise's bike for evidence,

it's been brought to her local police station.

Today, she's come to be reunited with it.

'I'm a bit anxious, actually.'

I'm just wondering if it's going to be a purple bike

with pink ribbons on!

That feeling.

So, I'm hoping it's the right bike cos I haven't seen it yet.

SHE LAUGHS

That's my bike! Yeah, brilliant.

God, it's all in one piece. Look at that.

I never thought I'd see this again.

This is absolutely fantastic.

Brilliant. Back with me again. I'll just have to start training now.

It feels like, you know, obviously, the legacy of my mum...

So, I've got that back

and it's part of her back. It's great.

Yeah, nice to have it all back.

Thank you ever so, ever so much for that.

Brilliant. I can race again.

I won't be thanking you half-way through the race!

As with Louise's stolen bikes,

burglars will often come looking for specific types of goods.

These are usually items which are easy to move on

and with a high re-sale value.

It's 6.00pm in Southend.

Working the evening shift is officer Paul Brown.

He's on his way to investigate a burglary at a family home.

The house was empty most of the day while the occupants were at work.

They've come back, found their patio doors smashed.

PC Brown from Southend.

Graham Winkless has returned from work

to find intruders have broken into his home.

It might hit me a bit later that someone's been in here

and, you know, walked round the house and done what they've done.

Yes, that might. It hasn't hit me at the moment,

because you have to get on with things,

phone the police, phone the insurance company,

but it may hit me later that, you know, someone has been here.

And also, the thought that they might come back.

It's really the master bedroom that's been searched.

Forensic officer Paul Clarke

arrived 20 minutes after the alarm was raised.

The officers must quickly establish exactly what's missing.

Unfortunately, the gentleman's wife died about a year ago.

Beginning of this year, yeah. So he's not sure what was here, really.

I've got a feeling there was a watch in that tin.

Do you know what sort of watch that was?

No. If you look on that lid, that will tell you. That silver lid.

-Jeep.

-Jeep, that's it. It would have been a Jeep watch.

-Right.

The curtains were drawn cos I always leave them open.

I've got my cufflinks in there and they've all been turfed out,

but there's not really anything wonderfully expensive there.

Ignoring everything else in the house,

the burglars have targeted the family's jewellery.

Because Graham's wife passed away last year,

he isn't sure exactly what jewellery was still kept

in the bedroom they shared.

-Really? Nothing at all?

-This is why I'm phoning my daughters.

Because they would know more about that than me, because it was there.

But I don't know if there was anything of value.

-I hope there wasn't anything of value.

-Yeah.

Because my wife died at the beginning of the year,

my daughters, I know, have been through the jewellery.

Because I said, "Help yourselves to what you want."

I think what was up there was just costume jewellery.

Forensic expert Paul Clarke briefs Officer Brown

on what he's discovered so far.

This would appear to be the point of entry.

There's no obvious tools that they've used.

-I'm guessing the key was in the lock, was it?

-No.

-It wasn't? Oh, right.

-No, the key was hidden right round the corner.

-So they haven't used the key to get in.

-No.

They've obviously come... Well, dropped through onto here.

The thief, or thieves,

have smashed through a glass panel in the back door

and squeezed through the gap.

This appears to be their route in and out of the house.

They're in, they're in.

But there's a sense of relief that they haven't done too much damage

and, obviously, they were purely looking for jewellery.

The point of entry is the first place to look for forensic evidence.

For Officer Clarke, this is a familiar scene.

They've either kicked it in that sort of position...

but, again, not overly easy,

cos you've got the risk of cutting your leg.

Have a look to see if there's any fibres along this edge.

I'll also be looking for blood.

This glass is quite sharp.

Just in case the person's cut themselves.

Yep, so they've actually come down the side.

There are some finger marks here, along this gate.

Someone has put their hands on here to climb over, possibly.

I'll have a look at those in a moment.

Back inside, Graham's had an awful realisation.

The engagement ring he gave his late wife is missing.

Graham's daughter Emily arrives with Libby, his granddaughter.

-You know that ring?

-Yeah.

That hasn't been there for ages.

Did you take it?

No. This is how they've left it?

-Yes.

-Oh, my God!

-Yeah.

It was on there, wasn't it? On there?

The ring was always on there.

-And I think we moved it into there.

-It's gone, then.

Unless you can see it on there anywhere.

Don't touch anything, just in case.

-Definite that ring is gone?

-It's definitely gone.

-Right.

-And it was a diamond ring.

-100%.

I'll just let the police know that.

There was a diamond engagement ring up there.

That was going to be Libby's, as and when, you know, she could wear it.

Yes. When she got older, but I'm pretty sure...

I couldn't see it when I just had a quick glance.

I'm pretty sure that's gone.

Why have they got to do it to us?

We've had enough bad things happen this year,

and it just, you know, just tops it off.

The burglars have almost certainly

deprived Graham of a family heirloom

he planned to pass down through generations.

The last hope is that his second daughter,

Lucy, might know where it is.

She's on her way back to the house.

The time to recover stolen jewellery

before it's sold on can be short.

The investigation is now in full swing.

If the burglars are already known to the police,

a single piece of forensic evidence

could lead them straight to a named suspect.

I'm just going through the items now that have been disturbed

and taken out of this drawer.

We're looking for fingerprints, which, of course,

could be the person that lives here.

But we would take their fingerprints for elimination purposes.

The first thing we would do if we did find any fingerprints,

we'll always try and discount the people that actually live here,

who would have left them lawfully.

With forensic tests on the house complete,

Officer Clarke takes the samples

straight back to the police lab for analysis.

Graham's other daughter, Lucy, has arrived.

Lucy? Where are you?

She's gone straight upstairs to look for the ring.

-Do you know where it was?

-Er, if anywhere...

No, it wasn't. It hadn't been there for a long time.

-Hadn't been there?

-That's why I thought they hadn't taken it.

Because then we put it in there.

Lucy confirms the ring has been stolen.

It's a blow, but the family is realising

it could have been even worse.

-It's just so lucky that we tidied out, then.

-That's what I said.

When we done everything.

Fortunately, most of the jewellery of sentimental value

had already been removed from the bedroom.

The family will work together on an exact list of stolen items

for the police to track down.

I'll give you a call over the next few days.

Make a list whenever you get a chance,

and we'll see what is gone.

Hopefully, not a lot. But you never know.

As I say, things pop up days, weeks, down the line,

and you don't even know it's gone,

you know, until you're looking for it.

-OK. See you later.

-Thank you.

Burglars, obviously,

they're not interested in what the person's going through.

At the end of the day, they just want a bit of money out of it,

and they break in to this poor fella's house, who's obviously

had a difficult time over the last year.

And, you know, if only they could realise

what it is they're doing to some of these families.

But, you know, a lot of them don't,

and don't care, even if they do.

Forensic tests from the house

could provide police with a named suspect.

PC Brown will continue with his enquiries,

while he waits for these results to come back.

Not all the break-ins the police investigate are at private homes.

Burglars will also target commercial businesses,

where the value of items to steal can be much higher.

This gang is raiding a car dealership compound,

intent on stealing as many expensive vehicles as they can.

It looked like a highly organised operation,

but they're about to make an unbelievable mistake.

Arnold Clark Motors in Aberdeen

is part of Europe's largest family-run car dealership.

One morning in 2010, garage manager, Gary Copland

was woken by some disturbing news.

I got a phone call about five in the morning

saying that there'd been a break-in at the garage

and we'd had a couple of cars stolen.

This garage's CCTV was not continuously monitored.

The robbery was already in progress

when the security team checking the screens

noticed what was happening.

After raising the alarm,

they quickly scrolled back through the footage

and realised how serious the situation was.

It transpired that we'd had more than two cars stolen.

It was found that we'd actually seven cars stolen.

With seven vehicles confirmed missing,

this was a major case for Grampian Police.

The investigation was led by robbery specialist, Sergeant Dave Ferguson.

When we came on duty at seven o'clock in the morning,

we were told about this crime. We automatically thought,

when it was such a high value of crime,

it must be an organised crime group from, possibly, Liverpool,

who have stolen these cars to order.

It was up to Sergeant Ferguson to find the three masked men

who'd brazenly committed robbery on camera.

There was a team set together, led by myself,

to investigate it.

The first step was to use the CCTV evidence

to work out how the robbers got in.

They're all wearing gloves, so, you know,

they've made efforts to conceal their identity.

After forcing the front gates,

the robbers managed to break through a fire door into the main complex.

At this point, the garage's alarm should have gone off.

Sergeant Ferguson quickly discovered

why this security device failed.

The garage didn't haven't any alarm set within the premises.

They did previously have pigeons in their roof which were coming through

and were setting off their alarm. So they'd disarmed their alarm.

If somebody did get in to the premises,

they've got free range to do what they like.

Once inside, the robbers went straight

to where all the vehicle keys were kept.

They then go round the car showroom,

trying to identify the various motors with the key,

to see which one is going to flash when it opens.

In ten minutes, the gang had gained access

to three high-powered vehicles.

After cutting through a padlock on the rear door,

they were ready to make their escape.

More or less, they're lining them up,

so they all leave in convoy as well.

That's the first three. They're away to drive out the gate.

Having left the scene

with tens of thousands of pounds worth of cars,

most criminals would have seen this

as a good time to call it a night.

These robbers had a more ambitious plan.

They must've thought they'd struck gold,

when they've seen how easy it was.

They've gone in there, they've not been disturbed,

you know, there's no police cars going about.

There's nobody disturbing them there at all.

15 minutes later,

the three men returned in one of the stolen vehicles.

They then steal another two cars.

Go away, come back in the X5 a short time later,

and steal a final two cars.

There's nobody disturbed them there at all,

and they've driven away with, well, seven vehicles.

So they must have thought it was fantastic.

By sunrise, the gang had driven off

with over £120,000 worth of cars.

To have seven cars stolen at one time is a fairly major event.

I was quite embarrassed by it, apart from anything else,

to have seven cars stolen from my garage.

What made the situation more difficult

was that one of the stolen cars didn't belong to the dealership.

It's not just our stock. You're actually...

you've got other people's belongings,

and, erm, it's a bit galling to have to go and tell them

that they've had their car stolen from our premises. It's not good.

John Dyker had dropped his car off at the garage

a few days before the robbery.

It was one of the last vehicles the gang found the keys to.

I got a phone call to say my car had been stolen.

It was a brand new car anyway, due its first service.

It was a total shock,

cos it's the first time that

I've ever had anything stolen from me.

It's basically been my pride and joy.

The police knew time was running out to recover the stolen cars.

How the gang had disposed of seven vehicles

within two hours remained a mystery.

Then later that afternoon,

a discovery changed the course of the investigation.

A man who'd himself bought a car from the garage,

noticed a vehicle on his street

that looked to have come straight from their showroom.

A customer who actually drove one of our Focuses,

had seen the white Focus ST

being parked outside his domestic premises,

and thought it was suspicious that somebody was parking a car there

without any plates on it,

and decided to contact the police.

They were obviously reasonably organised,

but I think their abilities to steal were better

than their abilities to dispose of the vehicles.

It seemed these might not be quite

the highly organised thieves the police had first suspected.

One of the individuals,

he had parked the car almost directly outside his home address,

and I think there was also a price tag or something on the windows.

So, it was a bit too close to home for him.

A top of the range Ford Focus stolen in the raid

had been left parked on a residential street

only three miles from the garage,

outside the home of a man well known to police,

with several previous car crime convictions.

We do what we call a Phase B.

We'll send patrol cars round every single street,

and up every single alley,

to see if any of these cars are parked nearby,

so we can get them recovered.

One by one, the police began to find the stolen vehicles

parked in open view on nearby streets.

I think it was probably by ten o'clock at night,

we had the full seven cars recovered.

Within the first 24 hours,

we had positive lines of enquiry

in relation to the individuals responsible for this break-in.

With the stolen cars located,

the police soon arrested three men in connection with the robbery.

As the cars started coming back, and information came in,

it certainly sped up,

and we were quite pleased to clear that in, well, within 72 hours.

It was decent for us.

The hapless car thieves' failure

to dispose of their stolen vehicles

meant all seven could be returned undamaged,

both to the garage and a very relieved John Dyker.

When I got it, I was very happy I got it back.

Because it was my first brand-new car.

I was just glad to get my own car back.

It was a great result for the police

and a fortunate outcome for the garage.

We were fairly unlucky.

They were opportunists, to a certain extent,

but they'd done a bit of homework on the premises.

They should have had an alarm on their premises.

They shouldn't have had... Where their keys were stored,

that should have been in a safe box that somebody can't break in.

We've brought security slightly more up-to-date.

We've now got three places where we keep keys,

in lock-fast key cabinets behind locked doors.

Cars are now tagged with numbers.

We're looking to upgrade the CCTV in due course.

I like to think that whatever we've done

has now tightened up the security of the garage,

and we think we're making it more difficult

for criminals to go down that route.

Car crime remains a scourge that police are determined to stamp out.

Although two of Louise's stolen bikes were never found,

with her most precious bike returned,

Louise was able to continue her training.

The police did a fantastic effort.

I think it was the speed of the reaction.

So I really can't thank them enough.

The investigation into Graham's burglary is ongoing.

DNA and fingerprint evidence found at the house proved inconclusive.

In the case of the car showroom raid,

three men arrested in the days following the robbery

were charged with theft.

All charges were later dropped,

due to a legal technicality.

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