Episode 4 Robbed, Raided, Reunited

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

Coming up...

They've obviously smashed an hole through here and put

their hands through and turned the key because I'd left the key in. Very stupid, really,

but you never think these things are going to happen to you, do you?

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

-Police officers! Stay where you are.

-What's going on?

Right, come on then. We've got a warrant to search your house, yeah?

-For what?

-Stolen property.

And we see how powerful it is

when stolen goods get returned to their rightful owners.

I cannot believe I've got them back. I can't believe...can't believe it.

I can't tell you how I feel. Thank you so much.

First, to the seaside town of Bridlington.

The East Riding of Yorkshire is the third safest area

in England and Wales, but that's of little consolation

to one family whose sense of security was about to be shattered.

The alarm had woken Anne-Marie Hughes and her husband Duncan at one o'clock in the morning.

CAR ALARM

There was somebody at the car door and he shouted out of the window,

"Get away from my car," at which the lad shot off down the street.

My husband went out to the car and checked it and locked it back up

and then came back in.

But we were a bit confused as to how they'd got the keys to get to the car.

There was no evidence of a break-in and I was sort of saying to him,

"You must have left the keys in the ignition or the car door."

We went through every room - nothing appeared to be untoward.

Um, so, made a cup of tea, came back upstairs,

and thought it was a lucky escape, really. Went back to bed.

And I had it in my mind that I would phone the police in the morning.

But by the time the morning came, Anne-Marie and Duncan realised

the would-be car thieves had been a lot busier than they first realised.

It was after I'd done a tour of the house, basically,

and seen that things weren't where they were meant to be that

I realised we must have been burgled.

There was my husband's phone, my daughter's mobile phone,

my husband's works camera had gone

and there was another personal camera on top of the computer desk

the night before downloading some photos and that had gone.

All in all, the burglars had taken four mobile phones, two cameras,

a laptop and a sat nav whilst the family had been asleep upstairs.

It was really, really devastating.

It was just horrible, that they'd had the audacity

and the gall to just come into somebody else's house,

you know, that's not their own and take MY stuff.

That made me really, really angry.

57% of burglaries happen when the victims are at home

and although Anne-Marie was deeply troubled by the thieves

getting into her house,

the mum of seven had more than herself to worry about.

The two little ones weren't really aware fully of what had happened

but my daughter, she heard us talking,

she was quite disturbed by it and she was very upset that her phone

had gone and obviously, a lot of tears.

I think that's when it sort of hit home to her, really,

that somebody had taken something of hers.

And to a child, that's...it's very, very upsetting.

An hour after phoning the police in the morning,

the scenes-of-crime officer arrived to search for evidence

on how the thieves had broken in.

He discovered that there was fingerprints

on the conservatory window and a train of prints underneath it.

It was just probably a little bit of mud but not to the naked eye.

It was only when he put the special printing stuff over

the top of it that it came to life.

He said, "This is it. This is where they've come in."

The burglars had broken in through a small conservatory window,

which had mistakenly been left unlocked.

And in this area, Humberside police know that 42% of break-ins

happen because of this type of oversight.

We always check the windows

and it just happened to be the one time that we didn't.

So, cross and annoyed at ourselves that this is what we'd done.

Because that's all it takes, just one time.

And they weren't the only ones.

The police had had reports of two more burglaries

and two other attempted break-ins in the same area overnight.

It had been a busy morning for the scenes-of-crime officer.

I said to him, "What's the chances of us getting our property back?"

And he said, "Well, they'll sell it straightaway."

I put my trainers on, got my car keys, jumped into the car,

and sped off down the road, and I just thought, "Right, let's see."

I just felt that I was protecting my home, my family, and my property.

We'll be back with Anne-Marie later,

when the hunt for her stolen possessions takes a dramatic twist.

But now it's 7.15 in the morning in St Albans in Hertfordshire.

PC Jill Brown and the Operation Scorpion team are about to

carry out a raid in neighbouring Bedfordshire.

We're going to do a search in an address in Luton.

Potential burglars live there.

We might try and find some bits and pieces, so...

Yeah, we've never been here before so it'll be interesting to see

what's in there, or WHO'S in there.

Electrical goods and jewellery were the main items

taken in this series of burglaries.

And Jill - who's been with the Operation Scorpion

unit for two years - really enjoys piecing the evidence together, to be able to arrest burglars.

Generally, jewellery just goes.

If they steal jewellery, it'll just be sold to get cash for it quickly.

Jill's been friends with her colleague

PC Pippa Mason for five years and they've been working together

for the past six months.

This is one of my favourite bits of the job.

We go to lots of the first bits where people report the burglary,

we see them looking really upset, obviously distraught about what's happened,

so it's really satisfying to be able to do something about it.

But raids of this kind are never without risk.

You never know how the people inside the address are going to

react to you, so you have to feel quite on it.

There's likely to be four people in there

so we've got enough of us to deal with it if any of them do kick off.

We'll have some people round the back of the property. That's the most likely thing that's going to

happen is that people are going to run out the back.

It's now just after eight in the morning

and the team are ready to move in.

We're ready. Do you want to come up?

As Pippa and Jill take the front door,

other officers go to the back of the house.

Police! Come to the door now!

Come to the door.

Hello! Police. Police.

Police officers. Stay where you are.

All right, lads. You need to move yourselves up out of your bed.

Have you got something on?

Right, sit up for me.

-What's happening here?

-What's going on?

Right. We've got a warrant to search the house.

-For what?

-You sit down in the corner if you want.

-You've got nothing to worry about.

-Are these your jeans?

-Yeah.

There's only just two in instead of four, which is a shame.

We'll get them secured downstairs, then we can do a thorough search.

We'll let them get some boxers on.

The suspects are taken out of the way as the officers

begin their search.

DS Sophia Pidgeon is responsible for leading the raid.

She enjoys the challenge of trying to find every last

piece of evidence.

There's been an increase in burglary in Harpenden in the last few weeks.

And there's been a lot of jewellery that's been stolen.

And some electrical items, like small stuff, but we're mostly looking for jewellery.

This is the stuff that's worth the money, so...

We'll turn the place upside down. Boom!

This is really dusty. This is not from a burglary.

We've just been searching the wardrobe here.

There's quite a lot of paperwork in their names,

so we're just having a nose, see whether we can find anything from that.

There's very little in this room so there isn't a lot to search, to be honest.

It's quite sparse. The whole house is sparse, to be fair.

It's not long before the officers find evidence of drug-taking.

There's coke in here though, isn't there?

-Yeah.

-Well, just a trace.

-Careful.

We've got to make a judgement call about whether we bring them in. We've found traces of drugs.

It's a bit strange that they've got screwdrivers and stuff next to their bed.

Our burglaries, people have been going in via the back

and they've been forcing the windows and the doors using a sort of flat-bladed tool.

And it stinks of a screwdriver. These lads are quite well-known.

The screwdrivers could be a vital piece of evidence in deciding

if the men are connected to the series of burglaries.

Roger zero...

-Do you want me to bring these?

-That's not there. That's not it.

It's got like a circle there.

At a couple of our burglaries,

we've had some shoe marks lifted from the trainers,

so we're just checking all the trainers that are in the house to see if they match any of the marks.

There's only one pair of trainers in the whole house and apparently four people live here.

So we're just trying to find the other trainers but that doesn't match, we don't think,

which is a bit disappointing.

The team's search is coming to an end but before they leave,

the police check if there's any other offences linked to the suspects.

One of the lads that we've got next door, his details have been run through...

-Obviously because the warrant's held up...

-..showing he's wanted for another offence,

so Mark's just on the phone to our control room to find out what the

details of that offence are and he is likely to be coming in with us.

Although at least one of the suspects may be in trouble,

the police have a responsibility to both men.

Their front door seemed very insecure when the team arrived.

-You need to sort your door out.

-What's wrong with it?

-It isn't very secure. Have you got a key for it?

-Yes.

-Do you normally use a key to get in?

-Yes.

Don't need one, though, do you?

-Yeah, you do. No.

-Give it a push or a nudge.

We definitely wouldn't want them to get burgled, so...

We've got to secure it so it locks. We cannae leave it insecure.

The officers have discovered one of the men is wanted

for the theft of a mobile phone.

You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence if you do not

mention when questioned something you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.

Understand? Yeah? Understand?

Yeah, I understand, but oh, my God...

All in all, the officers are frustrated not to be able to

link the men to the burglaries but the raid

just may make them think twice about a life of crime.

These guys are people that are known to Op Scorpion.

We've stopped them regularly in Harpenden.

The fact that we haven't found anything, it's disappointing,

but it's really good for us, because we've disrupted them

whatever they ARE up to, we've disrupted them and hopefully they'll stay out of our area.

During a burglary, thieves often target small,

valuable property such as jewellery

or electrical items that are easy to carry and sell on.

I put my trainers on, got my car keys, jumped into the car,

and sped off down the road and I just thought, "Right. Let's see."

In Bridlington, Humberside, Anne-Marie Hughes has taken

matters into her own hands after she was burgled.

Realising that the thieves would try to sell the stolen goods

as soon as possible, she decided to try all the pawn brokers in the area.

I think the lads were waiting around for us outside, waiting for us to open up at 9.30.

They were youngish lads, around 18.

I think one was a little bit younger, maybe 16, 17.

They just came to the back counter.

"How much will I get for this?"

Put the laptop and the camera on the counter and I just started looking

into what they'd brought me.

In the back of my mind, I'm thinking, "What happens if they're in there?"

But something was telling me they were in there.

First questions we really ask are - how much are you looking for?

Have you sold to us before? And, do you have any ID?

So straightaway he'd given me

two forms of ID his driving licence and a bank card.

I asked them how much they were looking for, and then they were

just like, "We just want what you're going to give us," kind of thing. They wouldn't give me a price.

So I started looking into how much they were actually worth.

I ran into the shop and there was two lads stood at the cash desk.

One was tall, both of them wore baseball caps, both of them

in hoodies, and I couldn't actually see at first what they were selling.

I was checking the prices for the lads, hadn't given them a price yet,

and I noticed she'd come into the shop

and she'd come quite close to where the lads were,

and she was looking over their shoulders and at first I thought

she's maybe being a bit impatient or she was in a rush, or something.

I was like moving about, bobbing up and down,

trying to see what he'd got,

and he had his foot up, just resting his foot up at the back

and I looked at the bottom of his trainer,

and it WAS the trainer print that only 15 minutes ago

the police officer had been showing me.

I leaned forward, and I saw my laptop case and my camera.

And I just knew it.

That's when she shouted, "That's my property. You've stolen it from me."

"You've got my stuff. You were in my house last night.

"You burgled me. They're trying to sell you my stuff. Call the police."

So I was straight on the phone to them.

The way the lads reacted, they were just shocked themselves.

They'd been caught red-handed with her stuff.

They left the items on the counter

and slowly started to walk away out of the shop.

So I ran to the front door and tried to stop them from getting out.

I didn't care whether they were big, small.

I never gave any thought to whether they might have had a knife,

it's just not in your mind at all.

I was just focused,

and I was just going to get them if they'd got my stuff.

At this point, the older one,

the one that was actually selling the goods, that had given me his ID,

he grabbed her and he pushed her onto our bike display in the front of the shop.

I was shaking. A bit in shock, really, I think,

about the enormity of what had just happened.

This is not an everyday occurrence in my life, accosting burglars.

There was somebody in the street that shouted and said where they went.

He said, "He went that way, he ran off down the street."

And I sort of picked myself up and went back into the shop.

That's when the police arrived.

They'd only missed them by about two or three minutes.

The police sprang into action. Although the boys had run off,

officers were still able to track them.

Their every move was being caught on CCTV across the town centre.

The police checked the CCTV.

Luckily I'd got all his details, got a phone number, address,

where he lived, date of birth, everything.

It could have only been about half an hour, an hour or so,

before the police returned to say that

they'd got him in custody, and to take the items away.

And then I think it was two hours later that they caught

the other one, and they'd got all our property on them.

Anne-Marie's timing was spot on.

Her swift action had stopped the burglars in their tracks

before they'd managed to sell a single thing.

It was genius in a way, really.

She'd thought to come straight to the pawnbroker's

and the exchange shops straightaway.

It was just pure luck that she'd caught them

at the right place at the right time.

Elsewhere, in Rotherham,

PC Chris Wright is on his way to investigate a burglary.

Homeowner Sean has come back from work in the middle

of the afternoon to discover that thieves have broken into his flat

by smashing a glass pane in the back door.

Have you identified anything that's been used?

-There was a little mini lump hammer outside.

-Right, OK.

I think they've probably used that. I think I left that here.

I've just finished decorating.

I left it here. They've obviously smashed a hole through here,

put their hand through and turned the key. I left the key in.

Pretty stupid, really.

But you never think these things are going to happen to you.

Well, you learn by your mistakes, don't you?

And it's a lesson well learned for Sean.

He'll never leave tools by the back door again or keys in the lock.

Show us what they've been in on your property.

I had two air rifles and a gas bottle to fill them up.

They've took a tub of pellets, so they were ready for that.

And they've took my telly, my Xbox,

obviously the pads for my Xbox and stuff. They've left the laptop.

They've gone through my bedroom, through my clothes.

Sean estimates that the burglars have taken

between £2,500 and £3,000 worth of his possessions.

We are going to get Scenes Of Crime down.

They'll be down within an hour. I'll organise that now.

I'll take a statement from yourself. Have they been in every room?

I assume so, because my air rifles were in there, so they've took that.

-A little storage room there.

-For the air rifles, yeah.

Sean works hard all week as a car parts salesman,

and has lost all the possessions he saved up for,

that he uses in his precious free time with friends.

And, to make matters worse, he isn't insured.

All three major things that I actually do during the week,

telly, Xbox, go shooting with the lads and that. So...

There's still valuable items here what they've left.

Obviously their hands were full.

The telly were 50 inch, like, so that's took some carrying out.

I've got to replace it all, haven't I?

And then obviously worry about if the people are going to come back.

Obviously they've seen what else I've got now, haven't they?

So they could come back and try again.

Just gutted.

PC Wright needs to try to help ensure that the burglars

don't come back again and work out why Sean's home in particular

was targeted in the first place.

Obviously you've got fields here at this side, which gives easy access.

It's quite well secluded, to be perfectly honest.

Nobody here at the back. Prime target.

The Scenes of Crime officer has arrived,

and will dust the flat down for fingerprints and search

for any other forensic clues to help track down the thieves.

For Sean, this burglary couldn't have come at a worse time.

His beloved dog Scruffy was recently killed.

I did have a dog till Saturday,

which got run over and killed, unfortunately.

It were right fussy, and it got out at work, and nobody realised.

And it saw two dogs across a busy road,

and just ran straight across and a car hit it.

And we went out and found it and buried it.

Last week.

The whole episode has left Sean stunned.

It's not in my nature. I couldn't thieve off anybody.

Well, I don't know why people do it, to feed their drug habits

and stuff like that, or times are hard. But what can you do,

apart from get insurance?

Without any insurance,

Sean simply hasn't got the money to replace his stolen possessions.

He'll have to save up all over again.

But just as he's about to hit rock bottom, there's a welcome visit

from his friend Dean, who hasn't come empty-handed.

I just fetched him my telly round, and an Xbox, like.

Bit disgusting, what's happened, isn't it? It's the world we live in.

Something to pass my time.

I was going to buy a new pup because I were bored,

because obviously I live on my own, so it gets a bit boring.

He can't even buy his dog now.

Somebody's put a right spanner in the works.

The Scenes of Crime officer has finished collecting evidence,

and PC Wright is hopeful they'll be able to track down the burglars.

We'll try as best to try and find the offenders.

And we only need one little clue, and it might lead to something.

We will do as best for you.

Back in Bridlington, quick-thinking Anne-Marie

stopped burglars in their tracks in a pawnbroker's

as they tried to sell goods they'd stolen from her just hours before.

Shortly afterwards, Humberside police were in the fortunate

position of being able to reunite Anne-Marie with her stolen items.

DS Gavin Osborne has been an officer for 30 years,

and never tires of delivering good news.

I'm DS Osborne. I think I might have

-some items that belong to you.

-Come in.

One of the most satisfying parts of this job is returning items,

personal items that people that have had them stolen

in these sorts of circumstances.

See if you recognise any of them as being your property that you have had stolen.

That's definitely mine.

Quite often the items contain information that is sentimental,

that can never be replaced,

or maybe items in their own right that are of high sentimental value,

and that enhances, really, the satisfaction that I receive

from being able to return items.

The officers that came in the afternoon,

really, really nice people. Absolutely brilliant. Very efficient.

Very understanding, as well.

Can't fault them at all.

Although it was not a nice situation that we were in,

and we weren't talking about something nice that had happened,

they made me feel quite relaxed.

And we even ended up having a bit of a laugh about what had gone on.

That is my daughter's phone.

She was absolutely devastated when she lost it.

I can't believe we've got it back. Thank you so much.

And my daughter, when she got her little flowered phone back,

she was absolutely over the moon.

As well as being reunited with all the mobile phones, cameras,

her sat nav and laptop, Anne-Marie was also given some possessions

she hadn't even realised were missing.

I knew we'd lost one watch,

but I didn't even know that we'd actually had the other one taken.

So that is brilliant. Yeah, that's my husband's best watch.

It's a very strange feeling to get something back that you didn't

know you lost, like the watch.

One of them was a very sentimental, expensive watch.

I cannot believe I got them back.

I thought we were going to have to go through all the process of going

through insurance companies, and it's not just about the items themselves.

They are replaceable. It's the fact that what's on them -

my photos, the stuff on the laptop, photos that were still on the camera.

So it is... I can't believe it. I can't tell you how I feel.

Thank you so much.

Although Anne-Marie got her treasured items back,

Gavin felt that the effect of the crime would still take its toll.

From experience,

he knows how vital it is to reassure the victims of burglary.

I can say, hand on heart, that individuals

are very, very rarely targeted because of who they are.

They are targeted because their house offers an opportunity,

and inside that property, there is likely to be

items that individuals want to turn into money.

Individuals who would take these sort of items have

no consideration whatsoever to the sentimental value.

They won't consider the fact that there's photos on there,

there's data and photographs on there,

or those watches might belong to people that are no longer with us.

And that's why, on this occasion,

the outcome of your actions have enabled us to get

a lot of satisfaction from being able to return these things to you.

Anne-Marie's brilliant swift action combined with some good fortune

meant that all her items found their way back home.

The timing is unreal.

Everything fell into place. It was just perfect.

I was meant to get them.

Now for an update on today's stories.

In Hertfordshire, the Operation Scorpion team

found no evidence linking the two men whose house they raided

to the local burglaries.

But they did caution them both for possession of cannabis.

And one man was sentenced to a month in prison

for the theft of a mobile phone.

He was also ordered to pay £320 in compensation to the phone's owner.

In Rotherham, the burglary victim who lost all his valuable

possessions is still waiting to see if anything will be returned.

But he has put in new security measures,

and now never leaves his keys in the door.

And in the Bridlington burglary case, two men were convicted.

One got sent to prison for two years

and the other got a 12-month youth rehabilitation order

and six-month curfew.

As part of a Restorative Justice programme,

Anne-Marie took up the offer to meet one of the men who burgled her home.

It wouldn't be everybody's cup of tea, but I had no hesitation.

I needed something more.

I told him exactly how he'd made us feel,

how traumatised my daughter was, and how it hasn't left us.

How we have to live with it on a daily basis.

And I thought, "These people need to know this."

He was genuinely remorseful about the fact that he had caused

such hurt to my daughter.

He said it wasn't the fact that it was our house.

It was the fact that the window was open.

When I'd spoken to him, it took all the mystery out of it.

I've seen him.

I know the circumstances leading up to him coming into my house,

and I did feel a lot better.

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

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