Episode 3 Oxford Street Revealed

It's the most famous shopping street in the world,

in the heart of Britain's capital city -

a mile and a half long with 30 million visitors each year,

with some of the world's most famous shops, biggest stars...

Kate Moss.

..and busiest stations.

Sorry, guys, stand back for me.

What does it take to keep it running 24 hours a day...

Busiest street in the world so it needs constant attention.

..seven days a week?

Clear off!

You're going to be arrested on suspicion of attempted theft.

Are you ready, London?!

A street that never sleeps.

This sort of thing wouldn't happen anywhere else.

Oxford Street.

-Coming up...

-Hello?

..the police are on the hunt for high-value shoplifters,

there's a brand-new toyshop opening...

25 minutes, everyone.

..if they can get it ready in time.

Oh, my God.

Who would have thought you could have this many problems

-with two dragons?

-Guys, watch the ceiling.

..and overcrowding on the tube reaches epic proportions.

I need to close the gates, one way or the other. Hurry, hurry!

Keeping Oxford Street safe is the job of the ORB police team,

and on a street with over 200 shops,

it's no surprise one of the biggest issues they deal with is shoplifting.

But, at 7:00am, at West End Central police station,

the ORB team are getting ready to pay a visit

to a shoplifter with a difference.

Sergeant Tim Molden is in charge of the operation.

This morning, just so you're all aware,

we're doing an arrest enquiry on a national

who is wanted, apparently, for a high-value burglary

from one of our high-end stores.

They believe the man in question has targeted an Oxford Street store,

stealing goods to sell on online for tens of thousands of pounds.

Today, the team plan to bring all that to an end.

They split into two, to visit suspects at two separate addresses.

It's on the left.

Nearing the main target address, the first team pull up to kit up.

I always get a bit nervous

cos you have no idea what you're walking into.

They've come to the location

where they believe their main suspect has been staying.

-Hello. Does he reside here still?

-Yes.

What room is he in, please?

Do you want us to accompany you, or can I give you a key or...

Er, if you have a key, that would be brilliant.

Hello there. Police.

The man they're looking for isn't in,

but the man who IS here admits he does know him.

-OK, where is

-BLEEP

-at the moment?

He's in the hospital? What hospital is it? That's the next thing I need.

You don't know?

The main suspect might not be here, but the room is littered

with high-end designer goods, many with their labels still on.

Listen to what my colleague is going to say to you

cos it concerns you, it's very important. OK? Don't interrupt her.

When she's finished speaking, then you can have your say, OK?

I've been very patient with you. My patience doesn't last very long, OK?

Stop speaking, sit down and shut up.

Do not say another word, do you understand?

The tough line the police are taking is a reflection

of how seriously they take the offence...

..because the main suspect they're after is no ordinary shoplifter.

They believe he used to work at the high-end store

where the thefts took place.

After losing his job there, they believe the man would return to

the store at night and help himself to high-value goods in the storeroom.

Tim believes the thefts from this one store have generated

tens of thousands of pounds of criminal profit.

The room is packed with shop goods,

but if they're to link them to the crime,

they'll need to prove they're ones that have been stolen from the store.

We've got some CCTV, a bag used to carry out some of the items.

Wondering whether this bag in his left hand is one of these handbags,

so we're seizing this as evidence as it's potentially stolen.

So we're going to need to seize the laptop as well.

Across town, word comes through from the other police team.

Cheers, mate. Bye-bye.

At a second address,

they've found another huge cache of items that match those stolen.

They've recovered a number of high-end handbags already.

But the main suspect is still at large.

We'll find him. With or without his help, we'll find him.

But with luxury goods by the bucket-load piling up in the room...

Yours for £880.

..the team decide to take the man they have found

back to the station for questioning.

You're under arrest for handling stolen goods.

The man is taken off to the station

with as many luxury goods as the officers can carry.

They continue the search of his room.

Bucket-loads of shoes. Even just in this one bag of shoes

I would estimate there's several thousand pounds' worth of shoes in here.

The police take the items back to the station

where they get the chance to go through them in detail.

The station's beginning to fill up with designer goods.

Sergeant Darren Bond has been in charge of the search

at the second address this morning.

So the property from this just one house that we seized,

we're estimating between £13,000-£15,000

in just in a handful of handbags.

This is only the half of it, really.

There's a lot more that's going to be recovered.

Obviously, there's a number of people involved -

there's more than one person involved in these offences.

The man arrested at the first address is now taken to the cells,

locked up, awaiting interview.

All right?

The main suspect, however, is still at large.

Later, hot on his trail, the team get heavy at another location.

This is our friend, the big red key.

Halfway along Oxford Street,

and a team of people are getting ready for a new arrival.

In ten days' time,

a major brand is launching its first UK store here.

But it's not just any shop,

it's the largest independent toyshop to open in London for 250 years.

The toy store chain has 11 stores in the Middle East.

Although owned and run by Brits,

this is its first venture into the UK market.

Oxford Street being the busiest street from a shopping perspective

on a global scale, when the opportunity came up

to secure this site, it was a no-brainer.

This is the realisation of a dream.

..That's it.

The huge rents charged for such a prime location

mean it's going to have to sell

an enormous number of toys to be profitable,

and the team know to do that

they've got to get off to the best possible start

by making a success of the opening.

It's really good.

So far, things are going well - the shop fit is proceeding to plan.

-That's the big boy now.

-The R2-D2!

-Oh!

They've selected over 100 staff,

who are busy getting to grips with the products that they'll sell.

The year's big sellers are expected to be toys tied in

with the launch of a new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens.

It's connected via Bluetooth...

STAR WARS THEME PLAYS

You get chills, man. There's always goose bumps when I hear that.

Should be able to now put him on the floor. OK, BB-8, run away.

-ALL:

-Oh!

Oh, my God.

-Say no...

-'No, no, no.'

To make the most of the gala opening,

they've got a series of impressive displays and events planned -

the main one being a display of large model dragons

from the film How To Train Your Dragon.

They're coming over from Paris to be installed in the atrium.

Hi, it's Chris at the toy store.

Making sure this goes smoothly is the job of product buyer Chris Ashton.

And they're being delivered on Monday?

And there's a secret Star Wars surprise planned for the staff.

They don't know what it is, but they know it's being delivered tomorrow.

It's all hush-hush, but I know for a fact that my excitement level is

over the roof, my hairs are starting to stand, my arm hairs - boof!

But while most things are in hand,

there's still one potentially major issue -

the construction of their bespoke lift.

We've got a delay in the lift

that could hold back the overall opening of the project.

Parts are coming from continental Europe, parts need to come in,

they don't fit, need to reorder them from another supplier -

it's probably the part of the project that will stop us opening.

Just a little worried at the moment!

Toy store chief executive Peter Bracken is adamant -

no working lift, no shop opening.

Later...

HE SPEAKS FRENCH

..the arrival of the dragons causes communication problems...

Guys, watch the ceiling!

..and the shop staff are shown their surprise.

-ALL:

-Oh!

With 30 million visitors a year,

Oxford Street is Europe's busiest shopping street.

This huge weight of numbers

is most felt at the tube station at its heart - Oxford Circus.

It's Britain's busiest railway station,

so popular that on most weeknights

it sees the sort of scenes you would only find at a football match.

It happens when overcrowding on the platforms lead station staff

to initiate temporary closures for customer safety,

known as manning the gates.

Hundreds queue at the four entrances to wait for the doors to reopen.

It could be a recipe for chaos and danger,

as welcome ambassador Michael Macau knows only too well.

Guys, if you could try and move in as much as you can.

Guys, can you get off the road, please?

By day, Michael's job is to act as an information point for shoppers,

but in the evenings

he's got to do everything he can to keep people safe.

It's 10 or 15 minutes past five now and it's rush hour time.

Sure enough, as the clock hits 5:30pm, the first closure happens.

Down in the station,

Gerry Haynes is one of the team working the ticket gates.

Gate closures are only ever introduced as a last resort,

to avoid unsafe crowding on the platforms.

We don't want the crowding to become dangerous,

so we're stopping now before it gets dangerous.

Above ground, it's up to Michael to make sure that everyone queues safely

on a very busy corner.

Sometimes it can take five minutes,

sometimes it can take 10, up to 20 minutes,

it's really depending on how they judge it downstairs.

This time, after seven minutes, the station reopens.

But only ten minutes later...

So as you can see, it's closed down again.

As the last few people get through the gates before they close,

there's a scramble in the station

and some people become separated from their friends.

I need to close the gates, one way or the other. Hurry, hurry!

It's now the height of rush hour,

and a combination of shoppers, commuters and tourists

creates gridlock at the southeast entrance.

Guys, can you move in for me, please,

just so people can get through the pavement? Thank you.

Closures usually last five or ten minutes,

but this one is lengthier

and the crowds some of the worst they've ever encountered.

Michael has his work cut out.

Control, just to inform you,

we've got a lot of people stepping out in front of buses.

It's really starting to get a bit too busy. Over.

This station's now been closed for 20 minutes.

By now, the pavement is full to bursting.

Guys, could you please try to move forward for us,

so we can get some people on the pavement?

The situation is so concerning, Michael calls in additional help.

Oxford Street is one of the only shopping streets in the country

to have its own dedicated security team,

and they arrive to try and keep the crowd off the road.

Can you please move off the road, please,

for your own safety? Thank you.

Finally, after 25 minutes, the gates reopen -

and, to Michael's relief

the crowd begins to filter down into the station.

I'm pretty glad it's opened up now.

As you can see, as you can probably see all the way down there,

it's really reaching quite far, the line at the moment.

Surprisingly, it's died down quicker than I thought it would.

There are two more closures during the course of the evening

and the crowds build up again, but not to the same dangerous levels.

It's half past seven and rush hour is effectively over.

Michael can finish his shift safe in the knowledge

that he's played his part in getting Oxford Street visitors home safely.

I'm guessing this is the last crowd that's going in.

We'll be here tomorrow at the same time.

The Oxford Street police team are on the trail of a high-level shoplifter

they believe is responsible for tens of thousands of pounds of theft

from one of the street's main stores.

They've visited two addresses this morning, arrested one man

and seized vast amounts of suspected stolen goods,

but their main suspect is still at large.

So this afternoon, a team led by PC Darren Bond is on its way

to a third address linked to the suspect.

They hope to find him here.

Hello.

Hello. Is anybody in before I force the door in?

I'd rather you opened the door than me bashing it down,

because unfortunately I've got a warrant to come in,

So you'll need to repair it, not me.

With no-one answering his calls, Darren decides to get on with it.

This is our friend the big red key.

-Do you want to swap?

-Yes.

-These locks are

-BLEEP

-hard work.

THEY LAUGH

Sometimes, one kick and they're in.

Others, you're there for half an hour.

Darren gets to work.

Searching for the suspect, he heads straight to the back of the flat.

Back door was open, which means...

I certainly wouldn't leave my back door open,

so there's a good chance that they've made out the back way

but it's very difficult in back-to-back premises like this

to cover the back door.

It took them so long to get through the fortified front door,

that anyone who WAS here is now long gone.

No luck.

Back inside, and even more evidence is piling up.

These are all high-value shoes.

All brand-new condition, as you can see.

These type of things are £500, so we need to work out

if they're linked to our theft on Oxford Street or not.

The officers find post linking one of the suspects to this address.

They seize computers they think might be connected

to the suspect's online account,

along with all the potentially stolen goods.

With a van full of evidence, the team head back to the station.

Later, the search for the main suspect continues.

And - have the team got their man?

At Oxford Street's brand-new toyshop,

staff are preparing for the gala opening in five days' time...

..and at 7:30am,

head buyer Chris is waiting for the delivery of what will be

the centrepiece display of the new store,

two giant dragons from the movie How To Train Your Dragon.

At the moment we're just waiting for the dragons to arrive.

They were due here by seven.

They're running late, but I'm just trying to find out where they are exactly.

These are being sent over from France,

with their crew from France to actually fit them.

To hang the Dragons, Chris needs special ceiling rigs in place.

One, above the main escalator, is already up -

but he needs his lighting contractors to come

and install the second one ASAP, and they're nowhere to be seen.

The dragons are about 20 minutes away.

It's not even... I don't even need them back on site this morning,

they've got to be back on site within the hour.

I mean, they've just got to get this stuff up.

On the street outside, there's a special delivery from France.

Tim Inskip is in charge of the displays in store,

and he goes to say bonjour.

-The guys fitting it?

-Speak...French.

OK.

-Is that your colleague?

-Two...

-Two trucks.

We'll, um... we'll wait for your crew.

NERVOUS LAUGHTER

There's a huge language difficulty

in that I don't speak any French.

Just getting my French member of staff to come down,

so we can translate.

Bonjour...

With the language problem sorted for now, the team concentrate

on getting the dragons into store and up to the first floor.

This is just a baby...

But the models are valuable and extremely fragile.

-Oh, my God.

-Watch the ceiling!

-Guys, watch the ceiling!

Careful!

We need tall people on this side.

Watch it.

Come on.

Clear.

Woo!

With the dragons in the store, the French team of fitters arrive too,

and thankfully, the team leader Alexandre De Ville speaks English.

-He is going there?

-That's right, yeah.

-And after in the middle?

-Yes.

OK.

So for now, we start with that one

and after we will see for the other one.

It is challenging, but we will work together

and try to do the best and have a good success.

A great success.

But the lighting contractors

building the second ceiling rig still aren't here.

At 11:00am, the lead rigger finally arrives on his own.

You need to get your fitters here now, and we need this sorted.

They are on their way.

We phoned you,

you've had since seven o'clock this morning to sort this.

Pushing, pushing. We had...

I'm not interested in why you haven't done it. It's ridiculous. You just need them here - now.

He's now saying it's going to be at least another couple of hours.

Well, he's expecting another couple of hours until his guys are here.

Going to blow a gasket at them.

Dragon problems. Who'd have thought you could have this many problems with two dragons?

Without the riggers,

Chris and Tim decide to put all efforts

into hanging one dragon,

from the rig above the escalators.

He needs to be slanting like this.

So he's facing down towards... the entrance.

More, more.

There you go, mate.

That's good, though.

Really good. That is really cool.

It's nearly there.

We just need to get their wings on and then have a final look at it.

-APPLAUSE

-Thank you.

C'est parfait.

Meanwhile, at the back of the shop,

there's an arrival too, for the shop staff. New props.

I've just heard the delivery has come in

so I'm going to go down there now.

Oh, my God!

Oh, my God!

You all right?

What the staff don't know is there's another surprise in store.

The props are costumes - and they're going to get to wear them.

We thought it would be a good idea that for our grand opening

we have you guys dressed in them.

So we have a list.

JB.

APPLAUSE

Fabian.

CHEERING

Dylan.

-Louis.

-Yes!

Yes!

-Later...

-25 minutes, everyone!

..it's opening day for the toy store...

hopefully.

PC Alex Jones of the ORB police team is still looking for the man

they suspect of a large-scale theft from an Oxford Street store.

They've arrested one man

and seized vast amounts of luxury designer goods.

But the person they suspect of stealing them is still at large.

There's a good chance that they've made out the back way.

However, since their raids and arrests

word has got back to the suspect that he's wanted by the police,

and he's been in touch with PC Alex Jones through a solicitor.

We received a phone call over the weekend...

saying that he's happy to come in to the police station for an interview.

He is going to be arrested for burglary.

Yesterday we spoke to the store, who have confirmed that the items were

stolen so at this stage, we're just waiting to go down and arrest him.

It's big news - but she has no guarantee he'll turn up.

There's a nervous wait.

At 2:00pm, there's a call for her from the front desk.

OK. I'll be down in two minutes.

The suspect has arrived, and Alex heads down to make the arrest.

-Hi,

-BLEEP.

And his solicitor? Hi there.

It's the man they've been looking for.

OK. Do you understand...?

He's not pleased to see our cameras,

but Alex doesn't let it get in the way.

There's an allegation of burglary, basically.

Do you have any response?

OK. So your time of arrest is 14:09.

OK, we'll go through to custody now.

The man goes through to be interviewed.

If you just wait there for me, please.

Just no comment. Just no comment on everything.

Did you want to bail him?

We're going to have to.

He gave a "no comment" interview, but that was expected.

He will be bailed, but it's going to be quite a lot of work still left to do.

So you've got all your details...

The man is bailed, and since we filmed, his bail was extended.

Whether he IS the man who stole the goods from the store

remains to be seen.

Either way, for the ORB team,

locating so much stolen property strikes another heavy blow

against anyone thinking of stealing goods from Oxford Street.

As dawn breaks,

Oxford Street is getting ready for its biggest arrival of the year.

Above Bond Street tube station, the largest independent toyshop to open

in London for 250 years is about to welcome its first customers.

And preparations are so intense,

the entire board of directors is having to muck in on the shop floor.

But if they're to open on time, chief exec Peter Bracken

has insisted their custom-built lift MUST be ready.

And it's not.

Richard Hudson is in charge of the shop fit.

We are definitely to the wire.

Everything now hinges on the lift.

The lift team have been working round the clock all week.

Reverse. Opposite...

-We've got to do some load tests now.

-OK.

The lift's running up and down. We had a snapped cable...

At 12:20pm, 20 minutes after they were supposed to have opened,

the lift team think it's ready to be tested.

Instead of using people, we use weights.

It's a 26-person lift,

so these weights represent the weight of 26 people.

They've loaded the full load into the lift

so we need to bring it up the top.

And the test is a success.

The lift is fine to be used for the time being,

if an operator is present.

It means the opening is now on - although six hours late.

Very, very close to opening now. Very, very close.

Got 25 minutes till we open, all right? 25 minutes.

Get all the pieces of paper off the fixtures.

25 minutes, everyone.

Meanwhile, the selected few get ready for their big moment.

Helmet onto the side...

-Thank you.

-It won't go on straight.

And then spin it as it comes on to front.

Everything is in place for opening.

ALL: Five, four, three, two, one!

WOOO!

The store opens, and the first shoppers stream in.

It's an amazing feeling.

All our hard work has finally paid off.

I mean, Oxford Street is a dream come true.

You know you've done something right if you've opened on Oxford Street.

There's been some tough moments,

but yes, we're really, really excited to be open.

Well done. Well done.

Yeah, I'm very happy. I'm very tired but I'm very, very happy, yes.

So, Oxford Street's latest addition

throws open its doors

to the next generation of shoppers from across the galaxy.