Episode 2 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

-Police!

-Teams of police are fighting a rise in burglaries across the UK.

He left his phone.

My Timberlands have gone!

Oh, for God's sake!

The people that do this are professionals.

This is what they do for a living.

Specialist units working with the latest technology

and the community-minded among us.

I just wondered if you were around or heard anything.

To track down the thieves.

Hold it right there! Stop!

And make sure they are held to account.

It's not just our expensive gadgets that are being taken from us.

They just went in, took what they could and went.

It's our cherished heirlooms, too.

What upset me most was the loss of my mother's engagement ring.

It's going to take a while to just get used to what's happened

and get over it.

Items that mean the world to us.

Very upset over it, really.

But police officers love nothing more

than to recover these prized possessions...

I can confirm it is their sat nav, so, a result.

..and return them to us.

I didn't expect to see it again.

To get those items back to people is really fantastic.

I think that the owners might be crying in happy tears.

The police are amazing. I am forever indebted to them.

This is Robbed, Raided, Reunited.

Thanks very much.

I never thought I'd see this again.

I thank them from the bottom of my heart.

Coming on today's programme, bringing home three stolen kids.

It's just because they're cute, they're not of any great value.

It's unbelievable, really.

First, we follow a burglary case all the way from the crime.

They've punched a hole here.

Through intense investigation.

That's the Adidas stripe, isn't it?

Yeah.

To a satisfying conviction.

Sit yourself down.

3:50pm. Southend Central police station.

Two teenage burglary suspects have just been arrested.

See you later!

Officers Christian Forbes, Mark Sawyer and Ian Howitt

from Southend CID are familiar with the elder of the two suspects.

He has no respect for the law, or other people's property.

Because it's all acquisitive offences, and also emphasise that

-some of his offending is very recent, within the last few months.

-Okey doke.

Their job now is to gather enough evidence to formally charge them.

-Right, get back in.

-They must do this within 24 hours.

Earlier that day, on a quiet suburban street,

a resident saw three teenagers breaking into a house

and called 999.

The two teenagers now in custody were caught 20 minutes later,

carrying a bag of games consoles and computer equipment.

The third suspect is still at large.

Jay Cranfield came home with her three children just 20 minutes

after the burglars had been there.

They have punched the hole here.

And then they've put their arms through and done that.

Jay had the unsettling task of finding out what the burglars

had taken.

I instantly then saw that the drawer to where we keep the PS3

had been pulled open.

The PS3 from down here was just on the floor.

I went in here, and my husband came back later

and noticed that the Wii was missing and then I shot upstairs.

The bedrooms had also been ransacked.

All my bedside drawers had all been pulled out all over the bed.

In the boys' bedroom, I did instantly know that their DSs had gone

because they always sit on there, so I instantly knew.

Electronic items worth around £1,500 had been taken from the family.

4pm.

The two arrested teenagers cannot be interviewed

until their parents are informed.

Officers Chris Martin and Stuart Crowe

are dispatched to the teenagers' homes.

The occupants of the address won't be aware, or aren't aware,

that they've been arrested at this stage,

so we will be breaking the good news to the family

that their children, in this instance, have been arrested.

Hello there. Does ... live here? He's been arrested. Can we pop in?

He's been arrested on suspicion of burglary.

You'll find out the rest of it, obviously

when you get to the police station.

It is quite serious, to be honest with you.

Was he with anyone else?

You'll get all your questions answered down there.

-Was he with someone else?

-He weren't alone. Sorry, I can't tell you more.

When we get down there, we'll explain it.

I don't know, mate, I assume so, but we won't be asking him

any questions without you present.

The officers search for other possible stolen items,

but find nothing.

He had nothing in his bedroom of any value whatsoever.

Dad's upset because his son's been nicked

and it's inconveniencing him

because he's going to have to come down the police station tonight.

Waiting for information is one thing, but with the clock ticking,

they could do with a break to quickly move the case forward.

A call comes in.

The next-door neighbour of the victim

says he has information that could be helpful.

The officers race over as quickly as they can.

They join PC Gary Jacketts at the neighbour's home.

Hello there. We're hoping to have a quick look in here. Is that possible?

Peter Tibbles has been a victim of crime in the past.

Now he has a CCTV system.

We just hoping we could make an identification straight away.

Okey doke.

The officers want to see if Mr Tibbles' surveillance system

has picked up the burglary next door.

I was actually out.

I left just after next door and the first I knew about it

was when I came back and CID came along.

I was only out for about an hour. It could have been my house.

They just door knock.

If no-one answers they leave it a while and door knock again.

The camera looks across Mr Tibbles' drive to the low-walled garden

of his neighbour in the distance.

These are the guys. You can see this guy's gone straight in.

-That's the tall one.

-The one with the white stripes on his arms.

He's in there for about a minute, I think it is.

At 2:15pm that afternoon,

three figures can be seen going in and out of the burgled house.

He comes back down. The first guy goes in, the second guy goes in.

Then a little bit later the third guy goes in.

They go in with nothing

and come out carrying the Cranfield family's property.

-Here we go. I don't think they've come back at all.

-OK.

The burglars have taken just five minutes to break into

the Cranfields' home, search the ground floor and all three bedrooms,

then make their getaway.

The CCTV also shows the police arriving just four minutes later.

And Mrs Cranfield arriving home with her children

just 20 minutes after that.

The footage is not close enough to clearly see their faces.

It's slightly frustrating, because it's like dangling a carrot.

Because you get to see them,

but not clear enough to positively ID them.

We can look at ID from clothing, from when they were arrested.

Things that they were wearing when they were arrested.

Obviously we can match that to the clothing at the scene with the CCTV.

It's the outstanding one that's the problem, isn't it?

Let's see if this is any better for you.

Might be a bit closer.

Peter has a second camera.

No, that's not going to be any better, isn't it?

No, it isn't bad.

Can you go back a bit?

That's the sort of quality

at the very least we could put in a newspaper.

The shot of the suspects arriving may be only four seconds long,

but is good enough to clearly see their clothing.

It does rule out a couple of people I had in mind though,

to be honest with you.

It's a remarkable piece of evidence for the investigation.

If you could sign at the top and bottom. Lovely.

-Thank you very much.

-Thank you for your time.

-Thanks for your time.

The officers take a copy of the CCTV footage as evidence.

As we have just seen from the CCTV, three males, in broad daylight,

this is during the day on a busy road.

Given the weather and time of day, it's quiet now,

but three males walk up here with quite a pace on.

They don't appear to look around at all.

They're not stopping.

They seem to know where they're going.

They've then gone in and burgled the house, and then four or five

minutes later they're seen to walk out with armfuls of property

and walk out up here.

There's another busy road at the top and they live probably

about half a mile that way, so they certainly haven't come far at all.

And they've made no effort to disguise themselves. It's blatant.

A blatant burglary going on while lots of people are driving past.

Fortunately, you have CCTV at the guy's house next door.

He's got a really good set-up.

We've got two of the people,

and hopefully this CCTV will lead us to the third.

With the clock ticking, the officers head for the station

to report on this crucial progress in the case.

Coming up,

another remarkable discovery gives the case new impetus.

Before they burgled the place there was a snowman which stood

around 5ft tall and they started kicking it in.

There's footprints and shoes have been seized from the suspects.

We have the footwear and their marks.

That leaves us with something else to put them at the scene.

But first, the story of a heart-warming reunion

in the small village of Easingwold in North Yorkshire.

Every year, farmer Paul Kaygill shapes his crop of maize

into a maze and opens his farm to the public.

Every year, the children, the first thing they do

is to come down to the goat enclosure.

We have new ones every year.

Paul's farm boasts 12 goats, but the star is Daisy.

A prolific breeder, her latest crop was three kids.

The children named them - Maisie, Snowy and Billy.

The really small one was Billy.

He was like a runt of the litter, really.

But he was really cute and a bit of a character.

He was always up first to see anybody.

As part of his daily routine, Paul closely looked after his goats.

The kids were just three weeks old.

Well, I just got up as normal. I get up about 6.30.

And I went down to check the goats as I did every morning,

because they usually came out - as soon as I come out of the caravan,

they'd come out of their little shelter

I could see they were distressed.

The mother was bleating.

And I just couldn't believe it.

The little ones had gone - the three had gone.

Paul immediately contacted the police,

but was mystified why they had been stolen.

Just cos they're cute, that's all I can see.

They're not of any great value. It's just unbelievable, really.

The theft of the three goats

was also keenly felt by daughter Rebecca.

Poor things - it's only cos they're so little as well

and it was horrible.

It was really hard to describe

cos it's just such an unusual thing to happen.

The hardest loss was felt by mother Daisy.

The mum was crying for days and things like that.

It was horrible just to hear her

when we were in the house, just crying.

It was just awful that we couldn't help her

and we couldn't do anything to make her any better

and she wasn't eating and just...

It wasn't nice, it really wasn't nice.

News of the theft soon spread and it seemed everybody wanted to help.

Everyone was so nice about it, like, everyone knew

and it was just so good that, like, it spread that quickly

and everyone was like, "We'll keep an eye out,"

and it was nice to know we had the support of the community.

A woman up from Cumbria who couldn't sleep, she said, when I'd lost them.

Yeah, she was rooting for them.

The three stolen goats were still surviving on their mother's milk -

the situation could have tragic consequences.

Unless the thieves had an idea of how to look after goats,

I didn't think they'd survive more than a few days.

I thought that would be the end of it.

Despite having little to go on, the police launched their investigation

into who had stolen the three goats.

As the weeks slipped by, hope was fading.

The police had rung me up a couple of times,

thought they'd had tip-offs that they were somewhere

but they didn't materialise, so...

Yeah, we had our hopes built up a couple of times, actually,

but nothing came of it.

The police, like, they were looking for so long

that they said they were officially giving up looking.

After seven long agonising weeks,

Paul Caygill suddenly received a call from the police.

They said, um, "I think we've got your goats."

I came home and Dad was, like, coming through the gate

with this massive smile and I was like, "What?"

And he was like, "They've found the goats." I was like...

I came through and they were here.

It was just... It was really good. It was so shocking.

Amazingly, a taxi driver who'd heard about the goats on local TV

found them wandering 30 miles away on a street in Middlesbrough.

It was awful, really.

Bellies were absolutely, just, blown up, it was not nice to see.

They looked really, like, unhealthy. They looked like they had worms,

their fur was like dreadlocks, really, on a goat.

It was awful just to see it, and they just didn't look well,

their eyes looked dull. They didn't look healthy at all.

They were grubby, they were all dark and...

I don't know, they were right oily.

Dark, real dirty coloured.

Especially little Billy. Where's he gone now?

He's still got a big tummy on him,

but we've got 'em back and that was it. Fantastic.

Although malnourished and in bad condition,

it only took a couple of days for mother Daisy

to start to bring her three goats back to health.

My family were absolutely elated and chuffed when they came back,

yeah, they really were.

Earlier in Southend, Essex, we saw police start to build a case

against two teenagers arrested in possession of stolen goods

and CCTV from the next-door neighbour,

capturing the burglary as it happened,

has given officers remarkable evidence.

First guy goes in, second guy goes in

and a little bit later the third guy goes in and stays there.

It's 9.30am the next day. The police have just seven hours

to charge the two suspects in custody or let them go.

Officers Mark Sawyer, Reece Brent

and Sergeant Ian Howitt pick up the investigation.

Here, boys. Hot off the press.

Excuse me, please.

How many camera angles have we got?

This is the entire footage of what we got,

so there's, I think, a couple of angles.

They want to analyse the CCTV, looking for firm evidence

to link those caught on film with the suspects in the cells.

There we go. Oh, that's good.

Where's the target premises in relation?

-That's it - it's the next one there.

-This is here, yeah.

Try and slow it down a little bit.

They know exactly what the suspects were wearing

when they were arrested.

And that's the Adidas stripe, isn't it, that goes up to the door?

Yeah, then all three...

One guy goes in, the other one goes in.

And that's Mr Adidas top, isn't it?

-What, that's just gone in?

-Yeah.

-Let's see if we can just take it back a second.

I'm sure it was, yeah, it was the one with the stripe on the sleeve.

Yeah, that's top man. Adidas top man and him.

-Where is this other angle?

-Right, let's have a look at the other angle.

And the second camera angle gives an even better view.

This is going to be the exciting one.

The clip's quite quick.

You know, I need to see the clothing.

There is something else on the CCTV.

Just before they break into the house,

the burglars appear to kick down a snowman.

One's gone up there and one's there.

The snowman's just had his head kicked in.

Look how brazen they are with all the vehicles. I mean...

The detectives must gather every scrap of evidence

if they're to get the all-clear to charge the suspects with burglary.

So Officer Forbes returns to the property

and the spot where the snowman once stood.

It's seen on the CCTV in the area that three guys

matching the description of the two that we've got in custody,

before they burgled the place, there was a snowman that stood around 5ft tall

and they started kicking it in, for some unknown reason,

and once they'd kicked it in, there were footprints found in there

so the footprints have had photographs taken of

by the scenes of crime officers

and the footwear has been seized from the suspect,

so we've got their footwear and we've got their footwear marks,

so it's just something else to put them to the scene.

Back at the station,

Officer Forbes gets the suspects' shoes for scanning.

We scan the footprints on to our system and then they get sent off

to our footwear comparison department up at headquarters.

The tread pattern is all different on individuals,

so from the bottom of that shoe you can see different wear patterns -

he obviously walks a lot more on his tiptoes,

so you can see a wear on the fronts

and right on the back corners as well.

So he looks like he walks a lot more on the front of his shoes,

and just looking around it, you can see bits of stones kept in it,

the wear pattern at the bottom left-hand corner is gone.

If we do find a good footprint,

we can see how the wear is as well and we can match it up to these.

Lovely, cheers, Reece.

Now he must wait until the forensics department

reports back with any possible match.

There are just a few hours remaining to charge the suspects

or they will have to release them.

The solicitor, dad and ...

have gone into a consultation.

We've got CCTV and we want to show it to ...

and ask him questions.

They're now contemplating what they're going to do

and then when we get the call to say that they're ready,

we'll go back down and conduct the interview

and hopefully we might get something out of it.

It's now critical the police lines of enquiry start to pay off.

PC Sawyer receives a call about the shoe print.

Oh, right, OK. Lovely, lovely.

But for purposes of, just, talking to CPS tonight,

would you be able to knock up a little...

Just, like, a little paragraph, statement-type thing, or...?

Same pattern type, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Oh, no, that's fair enough, yeah, that's a starter for ten. Lovely.

Cheers, thanks, bye.

Get in there, get in there!

Preliminary results do link the footprint in the snowman

with one of the suspects.

The suspects refused to co-operate,

despite knowing of the CCTV pictures.

With time ticking on,

the investigation gets another break -

the neighbour who first spotted the break-in and called 999

has come in to see an identity parade.

The neighbour confirms the two suspects

were at the scene of the burglary.

Their clothing also seems to match the images on the CCTV.

The investigating officers

can now present their evidence to their legal team.

The case details are reported to the Crown Prosecution Service.

Now they must wait, hopeful they've done enough.

In respect of the 14-year-old, we're in a really good position.

We have got a witness that has positively identified him

as being the one responsible for breaking into the premises.

This has also been captured on CCTV.

The other lad, his clothing matches the person

who we believe to be him on the CCTV.

That person is seen to kick this snowman

and left a footprint at the scene,

a Nike trainer made the print on the snowman.

The lad that been arrested was wearing a Nike trainer

that has the same pattern on the sole. It's very strong evidence.

Just one hour before the deadline expires,

officers get a call from the CPS telling them to charge the suspects.

We're going to charge you with the offence below,

so you do not have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you do not mention now something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

It's very satisfying to be able to now phone the victim

and let her know that they've both been charged

and they'll be spending the night with us

until court in the morning.

OK, Mrs Cranfield, yeah, I've got some good news for you.

The two lads that we arrested,

-they've both been charged with the burglary.

-Right.

And, basically, that means now that they're both being remanded

in police custody and put before the courts in the morning.

Although it's evidence, the team is keen to reunite her

with the stolen items as soon as possible.

We believe this to be the property belonging to the victim.

It matches the description to a T,

so rather than us hang on to it longer than we need to,

the victim's obviously got some young kids -

they won't be able to last a couple of months

without their DSs and things. I'm taking photos of the exhibits that have been seized.

The photo's going to be my exhibit and I'm going to get the property

returned to the owners and I'm going to get them to sign a declaration

to say that if we did need it for court,

they're not going to sell it, swap it or dispose of it.

The last job for Officer Forbes

is to take the items back to the Cranfields.

Remarkably, all within just 48 hours of the theft taking place.

But as one suspect is still missing,

he can't be sure that all the stolen items have been found.

Hi.

What am going to do is show you all the stuff.

I just want you to say, "Yeah, it's mine," or, "No, it's not."

-Is that yours?

-Yeah, yeah, that's my basket.

-That one?

-Yeah...

-That's got "Bunny" written on it, obviously.

-This is the big one.

-Yeah, or hopefully.

Yeah, that's her laptop.

I remember her saying that she had a damaged hinge.

-Yeah, it was a damaged hinge.

-Yeah.

-Yeah, so you've got the candles and stuff.

-Oh, fantastic.

-No, that's not mine.

-That's not yours, no?

-No.

I would have thought a bag like that

is quite easy for them to pop into their pockets.

Yeah, they've obviously come prepared. When they were brought in,

they had a number of pairs of gloves on them anyway,

so they stick their gloves on, come in, put them back in their pocket.

Plus, with the weather, it's ideal, isn't it?

Why have you got gloves on you? "Cos it's cold." Simple, isn't it?

All the stolen items have been returned.

Now the Cranfields can put this nightmare behind them.

Dog's not hurt, we're not hurt and we got all our stuff back,

-which is amazing, isn't it?

-It's a nice result,

-to get the property back.

-That quick.

I mean, the lady across the road...

She's been a star, the lady opposite,

and also the one next door with the cameras as well.

They've been really good as well.

I mean, to be fair, without the cameras and her,

they would have got away with it.

And with that, Officer Forbes' job is done.

-Thank you so much.

-That's all right.

-Cheers, thank you.

-No worries.

The two young men pleaded guilty to burglary.

Both received a six-month youth rehabilitation order...

..and were given a three-month curfew.

The thieves who took three pygmy goats were never found.

Why the kids were stolen and how they lasted

for so long without their mother's milk remains a mystery.

Billy, Snowy and Maisie, however, are now all doing well.

It was really lucky. So it was nice to get them back.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd