Episode 11 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

Between now and the end of this programme, 40 homes will be burgled.

Coming up:

There's only that gone. I mean, there's another one there.

-So it's just a bit strange.

-Yeah.

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

Police officers from Hertfordshire.

"If you can't do the time, then don't do the crime," is what we say.

..and we'll show you how much it means

when stolen goods are reunited with their rightful owner.

A bit of a lump in my throat.

I couldn't really get round the words but, yeah,

it was absolutely fantastic. Lovely.

7am in Hertfordshire.

It's just before Christmas,

and Essex and Hertfordshire Police have joined forces, hoping to clear

their books and Christmas tree of some of their most prolific burglars.

Today they are carrying out five separate raids,

hoping to arrest four different criminals linked to

over 100 burglaries and car thefts.

Running the operation is Detective Sergeant Jason Rusbridge.

He's been on the force for 16-and-a-half years.

Firstly, if I can just thank you all for coming.

I know it's a bit of a pain getting up early doors, but hopefully the

18 quid I spent on apple turnovers may offset that for you a little bit.

This is Operation... I'm going to say "Argue-fy".

For anybody linguistically who wants to correct me, could be

"Argo-fee" or "Are-guffy," I prefer Argufy cos it sounds slightly better.

The intention is to recover items of stolen property

and to gather evidence to support a successful prosecution

for the offences of theft, burglary and possession of criminal property.

If there's any problems, come and see me in the Scorpion office. Thank you.

The officers split into teams. Team one is led by PC Owen Davies.

Heading up Team two is PC Phil Rosier.

The four suspects on today's list are well-known to the police.

By arresting them as soon as possible, hopefully the usual spike

in burglary over the Christmas period will be reduced.

In the run-up to Christmas, it's good for the police to send a message

to individuals who are involved in those offences, say that,

"We are going to relentlessly pursue you, and we will come knocking for you.

"And if that means that you spend a bit of time in prison over

"Christmas, then so be it."

"If you can't do the time, then don't do the crime," is what we say.

We'll go to the address, we'll attempt a consensual entry,

ie we'll knock without trying to cause any damage in the first instance.

If, however, we can't get into the address,

people frustrate entry or deny us entry to the property,

because we have the back-up of the warrant it does allow for a power of entry

and we will be going through the door one way or the other.

It's nice and early in the day.

Our offenders tend to do their business later in the afternoon

or overnight so hopefully, yeah, should be tucked up in bed.

Both teams are off to houses in Essex.

Shut it down.

Owen's team arrive at the property, known to contain several bedsits.

KNOCKING ON DOOR

Good morning, PC 9719 Davison, part of Hertfordshire Police,

Operation Scorpion team.

-We've a warrant from North and East Herts Magistrates to search these premises.

-OK.

Guys, if we can go through and just secure the property,

secure any persons inside.

Because the warrant covers the whole address,

what we have to do is basically rouse everybody, because it does cover entry to

rooms this side of the building. Don't have to force entry unnecessarily,

so we'll try and get everybody up,

get them into one room where we can explain what's occurring.

Meanwhile, Phil's team have other concerns.

DOG BARKS

Sounds friendly(!)

DOG CONTINUES BARKING

-Morning!

-Morning. Police officers from Hertfordshire.

Is he out the way?

Hello! How you doing?

How friendly is the dog? Is he all right?

He's quite loud.

How does he know I'm police?

I'm not wearing uniform, am I, fella, so...?

Back at the other raid, Owen and the team have rounded up

the occupants, but the suspect isn't there.

I do appreciate your cooperation in this,

I appreciate it is quite impactive on your life.

It's for the whole address, not pointing the finger at any particular person.

All your rooms will be searched, the whole property.

If there is anything in your room that there shouldn't be,

please disclose to us now before we find it.

Obviously it would be appreciated.

Any hazards, any sharps, anything like that?

-No.

-No? Nothing sharp, nothing pointed?

There are some piercing needles in the top-left drawer.

Piercing needles in the top left drawer? That's it? Fine.

When police do a search, they have to be careful in case

they come across something that could injure or endanger them.

He says they're sealed up,

but obviously don't want to come across them.

Just lift this out to get a bit of space to see what we're doing.

We may find other things

or previously-used needles around here, so just got to be

careful on that front, make sure we don't put ourselves at risk.

In another room, one of the team have uncovered a large amount

of electrical items, and something you wouldn't

necessarily expect to find in a bedroom - a cutting tool.

At the other raid, there's no sign of their suspect, either.

Phil and the team have begun to search the house.

We are looking for stolen property involved in burglaries,

so generally when we're looking here it's for anything, you know,

high-value - electrical items, stuff like that - that's normally taken.

Anything that we can identify with serial numbers and things like that.

The team know that burglars will go to any lengths to hide property,

and experience has taught them to leave no stone unturned.

We'll just check the windowsills,

cos a lot of criminals are sort of...

..quite switched on into rooms searches.

And they use it a lot in prisons, they hang contraband out

the windows, so it's always worth a search underneath windowsills.

And quite often there's crevices and stuff, so it's always worth a look.

Meanwhile, Owen has found something of interest.

-What is that?

-It's your receipt for ordering a large set of bolt cutters,

36-inch bolt cutters.

Someone gave me the money and goes, "Can you get some bolt cutters?"

The police want to know why he would be buying bolt cutters

for a known offender.

He doesn't have any real need for bolt cutters, other than chopping bolts

off things he shouldn't do, does he?

It seems the man has bought the bolt cutters for the suspect.

Take it from there, it's a warning shot across the boughs, maybe.

Both teams have finished their searches.

There's no stolen property, and everything is accounted for.

Definitely haven't got anything.

It went reasonably smoothly, encountered no real problems.

Obviously when you're dealing with multi-occupancy buildings

there can be issues around gaining access to certain rooms etc,

and obviously avoided causing any damage there in order to gain entry

to those premises, so quite pleased with how that's gone.

Back at the station, another team has had a bit more luck.

They've arrested a man and seized a large amount of property.

At the address, we have found items such as large screen flat TVs,

iPads, PlayStation consoles and jewellery.

We're inquiring at the moment to see

whether they could be identified by the owners and we can take them

back and give them back to them, hopefully.

The suspect has no previous police record

and isn't one of the four prolific burglars, so the officers take

fingerprints and shoeprints to add to the nationwide police database.

They are not the only samples they take.

This is a DNA swab of everyone that comes into custody.

It's literally two swabs inside the mouth,

so we get their DNA from them so it gets checked against any

sort of outstanding inquiries - burglaries, theft of motor vehicles.

Just open your mouth, I'll swab inside.

With one suspect in custody and a number of leads, it's been

a successful morning of raids for Hertfordshire and Essex Police.

It's always nice to get a result when you get out onto the ground.

It keeps all the troops nice and happy as well and, for me,

it's been a really successful day.

It's not just the police that go the extra mile to try

and track down our stolen property.

People go to extraordinary lengths to get back their treasured possessions.

Especially when it's the family pet.

Market Rasen in Lincolnshire is a historic Georgian town,

and is home to Ron Brocklesby and his six dogs.

We've got four Labradors and they are prolific gundogs, really.

The two yellow ones, Tank and his brother, they don't work now

because they are past it, but the two black ones have taken over.

That's Leroy and Freddie. They're pretty boisterous.

Rather good fun, aren't you, Fred?

And then the whippet's just a little bit of a...

well, I'm hoping he's going to ride with me

when I go out with the ponies and that, you know? Run alongside me.

And the terrier, well, she just does a little bit of ratting.

It keeps rats down from the chickens, really.

Ron's a country boy through and through.

Come on!

A life with animals is in his blood. It's all he's ever known.

They're just part of my life, really. That's what I do.

I love getting up in the morning, and the first thing,

the dogs come out and they're all here wagging their tails at you.

And that's life, really.

That's country life for me, and that's good enough.

Come and help yourself. Here, boy!

Tank and his brother Butch are the oldest dogs.

They're 14 now, and have lived with Ron since they were puppies.

Tank is a big, daft lad.

He really is a lovely-natured dog,

not an ounce of aggression in him whatsoever.

He's got a rather big head and a big body and lots of skin.

When he looks down, the skin tends to come right past his face.

Whereas his brother is a lot finer, and a lot thinner and a lot faster.

But Tank was always there bringing the rear up.

And the reason I called him Tank was, when he was a pup,

instead of going round something - a hedge or whatever it was -

he would go straight through it. And that stood from when he was a pup.

Tank means the world to me. He always has done,

and the rest of the dogs do as well.

But Tank's just a little bit different. He's just lovely.

Tank's Tank, and he does what he wants to do in his own time, really.

When Ron is out and about, all the dogs go with him.

They keep him company throughout the day.

I always leave Tank in the van at teatime, but I normally feed Tank

in the van because he tends to get bullied a little bit.

Even though he's a big dog, he's old and a bit frail now,

and they tend to knock him about a bit.

So what I do, I just tend to leave him inside

with the side door of the van ajar, so he can get out if he wants to,

and it just gives him chance to enjoy his tea on his own.

It's late on Monday afternoon,

and Ron has just got back from walking the dogs.

Come on, Tank!

Good boy! Well done!

And, as usual, while the other dogs eat their dinner in the yard,

Tank is having his in the back of the van.

There you go.

I came in, then went out a couple of times to make sure they was all right

and they was finishing their teas and that sort of thing.

He tends to eat a little bit and then he goes to sleep a little bit,

then Tank will wake up and have a bit more, and then he goes back to sleep again.

Unbeknown to Ron, whilst he's checking on his beloved dogs,

thieves appear to have their eye on his van.

Maybe just gone, maybe, eight o'clock time,

I felt I better just go check, see if he's all right.

Pull the door back a bit, see if he was OK. He'd had a little bit of tea.

Ron goes back inside.

But this is the moment the thieves have been waiting for.

Within minutes, they let themselves into the yard

and steal the van, with Tank still in the back.

I sat down, had a bit of television,

and then went outside and couldn't believe my eyes, the van had gone.

The van had gone. I thought, "Crikey. Tank's in the back."

Immediately, Ron calls the police.

They arrive in minutes and take down all the details of the van

and a description of Tank.

But there isn't much more they can do that night.

I was just worried about, you know, never seeing him again, really.

And I didn't sleep a wink that night.

Ron wasn't the only one who was left distraught by the loss of Tank.

So was Butch, his brother.

Tank and Butch are inseparable, really.

And the night he got stolen was horrific for the other one,

because they sleep together.

And that's the first time they've ever been parted in their whole life.

And Tank, really, he supplies the warmth, you know,

because he's rather a big dog.

And they just cuddle up together, and that's it.

And with Tank being an elderly and poorly dog,

Ron was starting to fear the worst for his old friend.

It was horrendous. It was.

And if they've got a heart, they might just find him

and bring him back.

You never know. You hope for these sort of things.

Tank!

Tank!

A heartbreaking story. But, later, there is a glimmer of hope.

Driving along the main road, turning into where I live,

there was a dog coming out onto the main road.

Maltby in Yorkshire.

There's been a recent spate of burglaries in the area.

PCs Adam Broughton and Alex Dorlin

respond to another call that's just come in.

We're going to an address in Maltby.

The gentleman's gone out between 7pm and 11pm last night,

says that a laptop's gone missing between those times.

When we get there, we'll assess the scene, see what evidence we've got -

any witnesses, CCTV, forensics.

The usual thing.

Adam joined South Yorkshire Police in 2004 because he wanted to help hard-working people

who are victims of crime. And that's exactly what he's going to do today.

Ten minutes later, Adam and Alex arrive at the home of Jeffrey Coates.

There's only that gone.

And, I mean, there's another one there, that's my ex-partner's, right?

-There's drills there.

-Yeah.

-Right?

-There's snooker cues upstairs that's valuable.

-Yeah.

And if it's somebody who's known my house, they'd have took them.

-So it's just a bit strange.

-Yeah.

It soon becomes clear that this burglary doesn't seem

to fit the pattern of others that have been happening in the same area.

Surprisingly, the thief has only taken a laptop

and has left behind lots of other items.

They'd walked past another laptop, walked past two drills

that's down there, like.

A gold chain and a phone were just above,

on the same desk as the laptop were. They've not touched owt else.

That's it, gone. Weird.

But, upstairs, Jeffrey has spotted something

that could prove a valuable clue to identifying the thief...

There's a footprint in there.

..Muddy shoe prints in the bath.

Adam's experienced eye quickly establishes a theory

as to how the thief got in.

How far does that window open, is that fully? Don't touch it for now.

-Does it go wider than that, is what I'm saying?

-Yeah.

-OK.

It would appear that the burglar entered Jeffrey's house

through the small bathroom window.

No mean feat, especially as it's on the first floor.

It's a tight window to get through, ain't it?

There is a drainpipe leading up to the window,

making it possible, but extremely difficult, to get in.

If they've climbed through there, there should be marks where they've pulled theirself in.

Actually, just looking at it,

I don't know if there's scuff marks on the drainpipe here?

Can you see that?

See the black marks? The scuff marks of someone's trainer soles,

or something like that.

It's a possibility that's how they've got in.

Probably skinny, as well, to get through that window.

Clambering up a drainpipe and climbing through a small window

seems a lot of effort to go through to steal just one laptop.

That window there, that bathroom window is the only window...

That's the only window that were open.

It's not a new laptop. It's about five year old.

Is there anything sensitive on it?

No. It's weird.

Whilst Adam takes his statement, Alex goes on the hunt

for any other leads that could help solve this unusual case.

I'm just going to knock on these houses down here.

I think a lot of them are shops, but there might be flats.

At the back of the sort of shops and houses,

it backs onto the scene of the crime where we think

the point of entry is, up the drainpipe, the bathroom window.

So I'm going to knock and just see if anyone saw anyone knocking about

in their gardens etc last night.

Have you got the serial number to hand?

I know you said it's quite old, so you probably haven't.

-I haven't, kid.

-Was there anything else disturbed in the house?

Not a thing, kid.

The guy went out about 7pm, got back about 11pm.

And it was this morning he's noticed his laptop's missing from the house.

-So I'm just wondering if you'd seen or heard owt last night, anything suspicious?

-No.

It's not the value of the laptop, it's just knowing that somebody's...

-Been in your house.

-And weird that they've only took that.

I find it strange that they've gone upstairs...

-Well, they've gone to that effort, for a start...

-Yeah.

..but they've gone straight in and took that

without searching anywhere else or...

It's not a valuable laptop.

Anybody... They'd only have to look at it and see that it's not a...

It's not half as good as that one that were there.

End of the day, just looking here, straightaway,

your TV is probably worth more than the laptop, ain't it?

Well, yeah, it is. Even the one upstairs is.

I'm only thankful they haven't touched owt that's sentimental.

For Adam and Alex,

this is one of the strangest burglaries they've seen.

But they do have a solid piece of evidence to go on.

They've not searched anywhere, they've not taken any other property,

there's no damage to anything.

It's just strange that they've gone straight to the laptop.

We've got forensics travelling to have a look.

There is obvious signs, someone stood in the bath with

a muddy footprint.

For Jeffrey, there's something positive to take from the situation.

As far as the police are concerned, I'm happy. They've done a good job.

And, from now on, Jeffrey will never leave the house with

any windows open - even small bathroom windows on the first floor.

Ron Brocklesby lives in Market Rasen with his six dogs.

But, one night, thieves stole his van with his oldest dog, Tank,

asleep in the back.

Not a real big man for words, but it was horrendous.

You're looking at the clock every minute and hoping that, somewhere,

that that van might have gone through a camera

and alerted the police that it had been stolen.

But, no, none of that happened at all.

Desperate to find his beloved dog,

Ron phoned his local radio station to get the word out.

He did an interview for his local paper,

and then his sister-in-law suggested he get in touch with

a voluntary organisation that specialises in finding missing dogs.

Local helpers were encouraged to help as much as possible in

postering the area, and also spreading the word on social network sites.

There was an amazing response.

Very quickly, people started to comment on Tank's page on

the internet, telling Ron what they'd been doing to try and find him.

Lots of good wishes, spreading the word about the vehicle

that Tank has been stolen in.

Coordinators checking the reports of found dogs to see if they matched

Tank's description, to see if they are Tank.

But even with so many people searching, three days passed

and there wasn't a single sighting of Tank or the van.

30 miles away, Kate McDonald was driving home from work.

Driving along the main road, turning into where I live.

There was a dog coming out onto the main road, limping on his left leg.

Kate pulled over and picked up the dog.

He was in a terrible state, cold and starving.

Waited around about five, ten minutes.

No-one came to pick him up, so I brought him back to work

and we kept him here for a while and gave him some food,

water and let him sleep for about three hours.

As soon as you got back, I took him down to the local vet and had

him scanned for microchips, one thing and another, just checked over.

But the dog wasn't microchipped.

It meant Kate and Andrew had no idea who he was or where his owner lived.

By 2016, all dogs in Britain will have to be microchipped.

The chips contain a unique code which can be scanned

if a pet is lost or stolen

and then immediately matched to the owner's contact details.

My partner came down, Emma, and she took a few photos of him.

She went back home and put a picture of him

on that Facebook site.

Within hours, message after message.

I think you had about 100 replies, didn't you?

Had around about 100 replies off people.

A couple of local people had put a link on to Lincolnshire Police

with a picture of Tank and a phone number for Crimestoppers

and a phone number for the owner.

So I then rang the owner up, didn't I?

The chap rung and he said, "The people I work for,

"she found a Labrador dog this morning on the main Misterton road.

"Can you describe him?"

I said, "Yeah, he's a big lad, he's got quite a few

"scars on his face from over the years," and that sort of thing.

I says, "He's got quite a big callus on his left leg, on his knuckle."

He said, "You'd better come and pick your boy up," he said. "He's here."

-And then he was silent, wasn't he?

-Silent.

Silent for a good 30 seconds, a minute.

He'd got it in his mind that he was never going to see his dog again.

And that phone call, I don't think...

I don't think he'll ever forget that phone call, will he?

No, no. Definitely not.

Tank had been found,

but unfortunately his three-day ordeal had left its scars.

"He's been in a bit of a poor condition, but," he says,

"we've fed him up, we cooked him some liver and put him near the fire."

I said, "He's never had liver all his life with me," you know?

And it was, oh, dear. I come off the phone and I just broke down, like.

I didn't...

It's a bit heart-wrenching, ain't it? Well, it is for me, anyway.

Finally, his wait was over.

Ron packed his five other dogs into the car and drove over to

Kate and Andrew's garage to bring Tank home.

I opened the door, and that was it, really.

My heart was going 55 to the dozen.

Bit of a lump in my throat and I couldn't really

get round the words but, yeah, it was absolutely fantastic.

Lovely.

When the news came through, people were jumping out of showers,

saying, "We've been waiting for the news!

"We've been waiting to see Tank reunited!"

Everyone, even people who didn't know Tank, were absolutely

overjoyed that this old dog could be reunited, not only with Ron,

but with his sibling, brother, who'd been pining for him, as well.

It would bring a tear to your eye. It would. It really would.

It's just nice that someone thinks

so much of their dog to go to all that trouble to try and find him.

-It was a really nice story, wasn't it?

-It were, yeah.

And, for Ron, it was a welcome end to a painful three days.

To me, he's one of the kids, like, you know?

I mean, I've got no children and I live on my own,

so they are part and parcel of what I do, really.

And it's a big thing

when one is lost or something goes wrong with one of them.

I can't describe it, really. It's just...

Well, brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.

I missed you, boy! It's good to have you back! It is.

Good to have you back. Back where you belong.

There's just time for an update on today's cases.

In Maltby, the police still haven't found the thief who burgled

Jeffrey's home, but he's reassured by the hard work

of PCs Adam Broughton and Alex Dorlin.

Their attitude was brilliant. I can't fault the lads.

What they did, what they said and what they checked over.

Overall, I can't fault them.

In Essex, no stolen property was found in the raids

conducted by PCs Phil Rosier and Owen Davis.

The suspect who was arrested received a caution

for possessing criminal property.

And, for DS Jason Rusbridge, the message for burglars is clear.

We will always continue with relentlessly pursuing burglars.

It's been great that Essex have come on board.

Some of the offenders living on their ground impacting on ours.

It blights lives in both areas, so Essex will be pleased

with their result and we're very pleased with ours.

In the case where thieves stole a van with Tank the dog asleep in the back,

the van was never recovered, and the thieves haven't been found.

But for Tank's owner Ron, none of that matters.

The van can be replaced, which it has been, and the dog can't. So...

That's all I was bothered about.

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

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