Episode 10 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

We're on the case of a crime that's committed once every 44 seconds.

Burglary, coming up.

It was very, very scary.

To have seen somebody in your house was really scary.

We're with police as they hunt down the criminals.

Go, go, go, go, go!

And we see how powerful it is

when stolen goods get returned to their rightful owners.

We all went into the hall and jumped up and down

-and screamed and shouted. It was fantastic.

-Thank you!

First to a crime which happens once every single minute

throughout Britain.

But only one in four people bother reporting it to the police.

It involves a prized possession that thieves love to target,

but they usually wait until we take it out of the house.

Bike theft.

Over 500,000 bikes are stolen in the UK every single year

and 95% of the victims never get them back.

The Met Police decided enough is enough and set up their

Cycle Task Force, an undercover team to tackle this crime head on.

They also all happen to be dedicated cyclists, so getting these

thieves off the streets is particularly close to their hearts.

We all love our bikes.

I wouldn't say it's one of the job requirements,

but most of the people are really into the cycling

and have everything from mountain bikers to dedicated road cyclists.

In my case, I like doing mad, nocturnal cycles.

I have a group which we leave Hyde Park Corner at midnight

on the Friday closest to the full moon and cycle

to the seaside for a greasy spoon breakfast before heading home again.

We all love our bikes, so we understand the harm

and hurt when people have when their bikes stolen

so if we can reunite someone with their bike, then we're happy people.

27 million of us own a bike in the UK and, in London, cycle use

has risen by 150% in the last decade.

Cycling is a growing way of commuting and lifestyle.

Sadly, the amount of secure parking within buildings isn't keeping up

with this demand and so people have to leave their bikes on the streets.

It means our treasured bikes

are there for the taking, especially if we don't secure them properly.

Would you leave your £600 laptop tied up with a thin bit of wire to a tree?

The answer is, no, so why do you leave your bike like that?

Today, Titus and his undercover team are preparing to catch

a thief in the act by parking a fairly expensive bike

on the street using a basic lock.

If you can move it a bit closer to the rear of that other bike. Lovely.

Here around Covent Garden, it's a hotspot for bike thefts

and there's been many thefts in the streets around Covent Garden

in the last four weeks.

We're going to have one site today where we're going to deploy a cycle.

We're going to wait and observe until our offender attempts

to steal a cycle and detain and arrest offenders.

The offence is complete when they take the lock and take the bicycle.

Obviously, if they don't get through the lock by the time we get to them,

we've still got an attempted theft.

All units, bicycle deployed.

This is the lock we're using today.

We go for cable locks because they're what cycle thieves aim to take.

They tend to find that the D locks are too difficult to get through,

they take too much time.

So we're going to give them

the opportunity today to go through a cable lock.

There are two officers carrying out covert surveillance from a building

overlooking the bike they've set up.

They're in radio contact with a number of other

officers down at street level and in other buildings nearby.

Because the Cycle Task Force are out on the streets, undercover,

everyday, we have to hide their identities.

We get a lot of people who live just around the corner

and they'll steal bikes from very close to where they live.

And others, who are really prolific, will travel,

and they'll travel until they find the bike they want.

And catching the bike snatchers is an important way for the team

to find the bigger criminal gangs controlling the thefts.

There is a myth that the average cycle thief

is the juvenile male youth who's starting their life on criminality.

We're actually looking at organised gangs who work together,

steal bikes and make sure they realise as much money as possible.

Often, one gang member will spot the best bikes to be stolen

and another person will do the stealing.

And it can be lucrative.

If someone steals one or two bikes a day, they can make between two and

£3,000 a week selling them on.

It is a serious crime when you think about the value of bikes.

It's a large investment that most people make and it is a huge

problem in terms of the amount of money that thieves can generate.

It's nearly two hours into

the team's stakeout and the bike is getting quite a bit of interest.

It's the job of the undercover officers to work out who is

an innocent passer-by and who might be one of the gang,

sizing up which bikes look like they might be easy to steal.

He's back.

All units, for your information, we've got a IC1 male,

brown hair with long sideburns, white trainers,

dark blue or black tracksuit with red stripes down the side.

Go, go, go, go, go!

Go, go, go!

That is the adrenaline rush now.

-Even though I'm not out there, it is brilliant.

-Fantastic.

-Nice result.

As you can see, clean cut, straight through.

With the red-handled cutters, it takes seconds.

Cos we do this day in, day out,

we sort of have a sixth sense about who might be committing offences.

There was the go, go, go.

The officers came from their hiding places,

he bent down, cut the lock and detained him on the street.

It's a good result.

Police!

It's an excellent result for Titus and his team.

Since they began their covert operations in 2010,

they've seen a 7% reduction in bike thefts.

Punishments for stealing bikes have also got more severe.

Instead of the former £80 fine,

a thief might now get a custodial sentence, a penalty charge

and also be forced to pay back any illicit profits made.

And by taking out the thieves on the ground,

they also stop the criminal gang leaders.

Most people spend a fairly reasonable amount of money on their bikes

and it's heart-wrenching to come back to find your bike's not there.

I've had personal experience with a bike being stolen myself.

And any offender being caught

and being detained is a good result for us.

That means there's one less offender on the streets of London stealing bikes.

We also have intelligence about who does it,

we can now look into his background, follow who he's linked to

and process it from that point of view.

He will be interviewed in due course.

At the same time, officers from the team will go

and do a search at his home address.

Not only looking for other bikes,

but we're also looking for evidence of where the process goes.

The average insurance claim for a burglary is around £1,400

but, as anyone who's been burgled will know,

it's the sentimental value of the lost treasures that hurts the most.

Some things just can't be replaced.

And that's what upset the whole community near Halesworth,

in the heart of the sleepy Suffolk countryside.

Something was stolen which was worth next to nothing financially,

but it meant a lot to the children of Holton St Peter Primary School.

Most crimes are selfish.

But this was particularly careless and uncaring,

because of the fact that it was a primary school

with very young children affected.

The school is a home from home for all 90 pupils

between the ages of four and 11

and Head Teacher Jean Righton has gone the extra mile

to create a cosy atmosphere.

We have a great family ethos.

All of our children have buddies across the school

that look out for each other.

All of my staff know all of the children,

all of my staff know all of the parents.

We just love watching the children learn.

When the school expanded in 2011,

they decided to mark the occasion

by commissioning a wood carving from a local sculptor.

He made it from the remains of a tree that had grown

in the original grounds.

It's been an important feature for them

and it was also a symbol of our new school.

So it was very significant and it was something of beauty

and I think it's important for young people

to physically be able to go and touch things of beauty.

The owl was an immediate hit.

Usually, other schools wouldn't get sculptures and things.

But we were lucky and we did.

But the pupils' playtime was about to come to an abrupt end.

On May 2nd 2012, a particularly bleak night,

the caretaker locked up as usual,

not realising that someone had their eyes

on the school's treasured prize.

On the Wednesday night, my caretaker would have done his normal duties -

cleaning the classroom, locking up,

checking the site both inside and out.

But sometime later that night, the thieves broke in

and stole the school's owl from its perch.

The night they chose to do it

was actually a very windy and stormy evening.

And none of the local people around actually heard or saw anything,

which made me think that maybe they'd been planning it for a while,

but actually chose that particular evening.

The following morning,

when Mrs Righton arrived at school at 7 o'clock,

one of her team was looking particularly anxious.

My cleaner in charge came to tell me that the owl was stolen,

so I went outside straight away and I was greeted by a stump.

I was devastated and quite emotional,

because it'd been something really important for our children

and I couldn't understand how anyone could steal from our children.

I think the hardest thing I had to do

was actually stand in front of the children

and tell then what had happened.

But Mrs Righton had to find a way to break the devastating news.

I gathered everybody into the hall.

They sat there and some of them did cry.

Some of them said, "Why? Why have they taken our owl?"

And, of course, I didn't know what to say,

cos I didn't understand why they'd taken it.

A lot of them felt it was unfair and, as one pupil said,

it was almost like part of our family had been taken away from us.

So they were devastated. It was really hard for me

to stand up there and tell them that information.

It was like an empty space, having a pupil in your class, like, missing.

It was sort of a member of our school

and well, we didn't really like it

because it was our property, nobody's else

and it was on our ground.

We used to play on it and now it wasn't there.

And we were all very sad when we heard that it had been stolen.

It did feel really devastating

and you felt quite sick at the thought of it,

especially as it was so important to our children.

So it was a very difficult time and you couldn't believe

that somebody locally would actually do that.

Mrs Righton called the police.

Local bobby PC Simon Green knew the sculpture well.

The owl hadn't been there very long.

It looked like it had been sawn straight through.

We didn't have any forensic evidence, didn't have any witnesses.

And the normal procedure, under those circumstances,

would be to do house-to-house enquiries,

which we did and to do a press release.

PC Green vowed to track down the stolen owl

and return it to its rightful perch.

There'll be more on that later.

It's bad enough to find out you've been burgled,

but image how it must feel

if you come home to find the burglar still in your house.

In Basildon, Essex,

PC Simon Matthews and Special Constable James Hollingshead

are on their way to investigate.

-Have you just called us?

-Yes.

-What's happened?

-I just came back from swimming with my daughters.

-Right.

As I opened, there was a man running down.

-Did you see two people or just one?

-I saw one but heard other footsteps.

Police! Anyone here?

The thieves might still be inside,

so the officers have to tread carefully.

57% of burglaries happen when someone is at home,

but it's quite rare to come face to face with the intruders.

In this case, though,

there's a real chance that the culprits are still here.

But it turns out the burglars have just escaped

through the back door of the house.

Simon immediately calls for backup to search the streets nearby.

There's alleyways in every single direction.

There's no sign of anybody out here though.

It looks like they've gone out through the back door, the back gate's open.

If you've got any spare units,

get them to go to the end of those particular roads

and then, send a dog unit to my location.

She opened the front door

and there was a guy running down the stairs who clearly didn't live there.

She's run back out, called us,

but unfortunately, it's taken too long to get the call to come through,

so we got here, cleared the house, made sure there was no-one in there,

checked the back, but there was far to many alleyways or directions they could have gone.

If they did have a car, they'd have gone in seconds.

The road behind here leads onto three other roads,

which then lead onto the main road.

So without having ten cars around the area

at that exact time stopping everything,

there was no chance of knowing which way they went.

Simon's been an officer for seven years

and knows how upset and violated Radica will be feeling.

It was very, very scary to have seen somebody in your house.

Plus my daughters were with me and they started shivering and crying.

It's...the most awful feeling.

Radica's normally tidy house has been completely ransacked.

It is an intrusion, isn't it?

It's a bit different to having your car broken into or damaged,

someone being in your house.

I imagine it makes most people feel quite vulnerable.

Radica's husband Devanand has just arrived home to a shocking scene.

There's some damage to the back door and a window is just open there,

so that's how they've come in and out.

Simon has dealt with enough burglaries to know

that he needs to give Devanand a while to take everything in.

-I'd like to check upstairs...

-Yeah, yeah, that's no problem.

Just try not to touch door handles, smooth surfaces, anything like that.

Although the temptation is to start clearing up straight away,

nothing must be disturbed before any forensic evidence is gathered.

-So this is your...you and your wife's bedroom.

-This is our master bedroom.

And this is your two daughters' bedroom, yeah?

Whilst Simon and his colleague James try to piece together what's missing,

the other experts arrive -

police dogs.

They're highly-trained animals and can hunt down a burglar

by picking up their scent at the scene of the crime.

To be honest, he's not giving me anything obvious at all.

So we're going just to see if we can cast him further afield.

-We've done all that. The only other interest was over there.

-Yeah.

It's a busy residential area.

There could have been half a dozen people walk through

before the dog arrived.

It's just ruined the track, the dog gets confused,

there's too many going in too many directions.

And it could be that they were sitting waiting with a car.

It's 15 feet and you're in a car

and then, there's not going to be a track for the dog to check,

so we just don't know.

As you can see, you've got a lady going there, you've got a bloke walk past there, you've got others there.

That's three sites straight away,

where you've got some disturbances, so...

It's a blow that the dogs can't find anything.

But Simon's other hope for clues is forensic evidence

left inside the house.

Scene of Crime officer Vince Atkinson has just arrived.

It's up to him to try to find traces

of where the burglars have been in the house.

Once they got in, what have they done? What's happened?

I had a brown bag on one of these chairs

and the things that are on the floor there - my wallet and cards

and the gloves were in that bag.

-Is there anything else in here that's been touched at all?

-It doesn't look like that.

As terrible a shock as it was,

it was just as well that Radica came home when she did.

It seems that she's disturbed the burglars

before they had time to take much.

-They've emptied all the clothes out?

-Yeah.

-Any jewellery boxes? Where was the jewellery box?

It was on top here.

-..still here anyway.

-Yeah.

The other jewellery are actually in those boxes.

I don't know if they've been touched, but they would have thrown it...

I wouldn't have thought they've put them back tidily, no.

It's now up to Vince to see if he can find any forensic evidence

to lead Simon and the team to the burglars.

He dusts for fingerprints paying particular attention

to the where the thieves came in.

I should have imagined they tried the door before they tried this anyway.

There's lots of jemmy marks on the back door outside,

they've tried to get in there.

Um... So whether they've been...come through the window...

Whichever way they got in,

entering somebody's else's home is just a job for the burglars.

But to this family, the break in will cost them dearly.

If not in replacing valuable goods,

then, in making their house feel like a home again -

a safe haven for their children once more.

I'm just worried for the girls coming back here,

cos I know it will have a big effect on them, cos my older daughter,

she was the one who said, "Mummy, there's somebody in the house."

The neighbour was saying she can't stop shivering.

And she just celebrated her tenth birthday.

As adults, it's difficult,

so I can't imagine what it'll be for the children.

And to add insult to injury,

it appears that the main possessions the burglars have taken

are some items of jewellery given to the couple's daughters.

What sort of value would you put on the jewellery,

just off the top of your head?

-Perhaps £600...

-For everything?

-Yeah.

-Right.

I mean, I wouldn't really, really know until I...

Yeah, of course, yeah, yeah.

Simon's waited until Radica has got over her initial shock

before taking a witness statement.

From experience, he knows it takes a while

before people can think clearly enough

to really describe what happened and what they saw.

As you came in, did you hear them?

I could hear running and then, one past me like seconds.

-Did he say anything? Did you say anything?

-No.

-No.

-Any idea of an age?

-Yeah, he must have been in his 20s.

-Early 20s, late 20s, mid?

-Mid, tall...

Simon's pleased that Radica's able to give a description.

With it, there's a much greater chance of the suspects being caught

and the stolen jewellery being returned.

But for this family, the emotional impact of the break in

is far greater than any financial loss.

You always sort of think it won't happen to you.

And, you know, we are quite good at locking up

and can't imagine what more you can do.

It looks like there's some jewellery gone, which is a usual thing these days,

no-one takes the 15-inch telly any more.

I'm sure the shock will set in once they've got to clear up,

it's a bit of a messy search upstairs, with all the clothing thrown around.

But no, she's doing quite well.

Scenes of crime have been here,

but we'll just have to wait and see if anybody comes up.

Although the couple are left with a lot of mess,

at least Radica's swift action has stopped the burglars in their tracks

before they had a chance to take more.

In Halesworth, in Suffolk,

the children were upset that their precious owl carving was still missing.

We were all devastated, we used to play on it and now it wasn't there.

Local policeman PC Simon Green had been doing everything he could

to track down the culprits.

Not only did we have a press release,

we had a lot of interest from the community as well

and a lot of people actually put their own appeals on Facebook

and social networking sites.

And Mrs Righton's pupils decided to turn detective too,

hunting for vital evidence.

We were all going to find things they left here.

I just looked on the field to see if I can see any bits of the bark.

I only found a bit.

They were brilliant afterwards trying to be detectives.

I said it was Holton St Peter Police School at one point.

And every child detective had their own theory on who the thieves were

and what had motivated them.

Probably they came from London

and probably they arrived in a taxi

and then, they saw this owl and they...

probably that's how they...they thought it was really nice

and they took it.

With the police and the school doing all they could,

the children were somehow positive that they would get their owl back.

Everyone kept on saying, "When it comes back,

"when it comes back, we'll do so and so..."

So that gave everyone spirit.

But the teachers weren't so convinced that the owl would be returned.

Personally, I wasn't sure it would be.

I'm not a negative person, but I didn't think it would come back.

But, six days after the owl had been stolen,

just as Mrs Righton was about to give up hope completely,

something miraculous happened overnight.

On the Wednesday morning,

I came into school at seven o'clock

and my caretaker greeted me with the news the owl was back,

which I couldn't believe!

So we went running out to touch it

and somebody had just literally positioned it back where it was.

So I got all of the children and parents in

first thing in the morning.

We all went into the hall and jumped up and down and screamed

and shouted and it was fantastic.

So we all celebrated the owl's return.

I was very happy because...

now we could play on it again.

Once we knew that it was back, it really brightened up our day.

And PC Green's day was a good one too.

His local knowledge has given him a hunch

about why the owl was returned so mysteriously.

My believe, personally, was that the owl had been taken

by somebody who probably wanted it for their own garden.

They probably soon realised that, actually, they weren't going to be able to display it in the garden

because they'd never be able to invite anyone around again.

I think without the police, it would not have been returned.

And making people realise that maybe they had made the wrong choice

and it was the right thing to return it.

So we're really grateful to PC Green and all of his team

for their excellent work.

For property, stolen property,

to be returned in this way, it's very unusual.

In fact, I can think, in my 14-year career,

it's the first time I've ever heard of it.

The Owl was back, feathers unruffled, in his rightful place,

overlooking the school's grounds.

CHILDREN CHEER

Hello! Hello.

Thank you for helping us get our owl back.

-I'm really touched. What have you got there?

-Art!

What I'll do, I'll look at them and I'll put them all on the office wall.

Thank you.

I was very proud of the children

that they believed it would be returned, so they were right.

And it was fantastic to see it.

THEY SHOUT: Thank you!

Now, for an update on today's stories.

The family in Basildon, in Essex, whose life was left in disarray

after coming face to face with a burglar in their home,

are still hoping that the culprits

and their missing jewellery will be found.

Since the break-in,

they've taken even more measures to protect their home.

The man the Met police arrested in London, Sydney Yates,

has pleaded guilty to bike theft.

And for Titus and his bike-loving team, it's another great result.

But they want the public to know

that the battle against bike theft is ongoing.

Record your frame number, register it online but, more importantly,

if you leave it in a public place,

make sure you use two decent locks, cables

and don't make your bike a target for thieves.

That's all from us today. We'll see you next time.

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