- 20 hours ago
Doorbell Detectives - Season 2 Episode 3
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00:00Look at these two, trying to keep it low-key in high-vis. Why?
00:04Well, because they're nicking kids' bikes in broad daylight.
00:08But don't worry, the doorbell detectives won't give them an easy ride.
00:13Across the UK, millions of our doorbell cameras are zooming in on shameless criminals.
00:21Oh my god, there's two men at my mum and dad's house.
00:24We watched them rip it all out in minutes. It was heartbreaking.
00:30But this video evidence is arming a new kind of crime fighter.
00:34I could see Ethan's bathroom door. It was like now shot.
00:38If you could hear the toilet flush. Oh my goodness.
00:42I just knew I had to get him. If I have to follow this guy, I will follow him.
00:45Oi, what are you doing here? I've caught up with him and now he's going to come to justice.
00:49Confronting thieves on your own is dangerous.
00:52Someone coming into your house is really scary.
00:55But sharing intel with neighbours can bring justice.
00:59It just brings the community together. Definitely, we are a bit safer.
01:05Nationwide, doorbell detectives are taking a shot at putting the bad guys behind bars.
01:11Had that recording never been there, I don't think anybody would have ever been caught.
01:16Textbook doorbell detective.
01:21Welcome to doorbell detectives, the show which puts pilfering, pinching and porch piracy into sharp focus.
01:30Today, Cheryl shows us how her camera captured this dodgy daytime duo that were doing the rounds.
01:37They parked on my drive and then gone down the side of the house and took the bikes.
01:42They didn't care what they were doing.
01:44No rush?
01:44No, no rush. It was just casual. I was just mind blown.
01:49When Jason's precious e-bikes are nicked, his whole neighbourhood become doorbell detectives to track down the gang.
01:55Social media just erupted. It turned out we were one.
01:59We think of around 18 to 20 robberies on that night.
02:03And former police inspector Anton Sullivan dons a flat cap and wellies to keep an eye on rural crime.
02:11Anton, you've left the gate open.
02:12Oh, wait.
02:19Watch as this supposed delivery driver locks in on something in Cheryl's garden in Middlewich, Cheshire.
02:26But rather than a drop-off, they are doing an unauthorised pick-up.
02:30They're pinching kids' bikes.
02:36And off they go, Cheryl jaw-dropping images there.
02:40But then you might mistake that for just being somebody doing a delivery, wouldn't you?
02:44If you didn't know what was going on.
02:46When I first looked for the footage on the doorbell, that's what I thought it was.
02:49It's only when I looked further that I actually seen the whole thing.
02:52And they're coming onto the property, taking each bike.
02:55So tell me how you discovered that something was up.
02:59My daughter went to go and find a bike and she came in and said,
03:03Mum, my bike's missing.
03:05And I said, oh, OK. So I had a look round and all the bikes were gone.
03:09How many in total?
03:10Three.
03:11That's a lot of money.
03:12Yep.
03:13And then what do you do? You go back to the doorbell.
03:16And then that's when I found the footage.
03:18Let's have another look at that clip.
03:20So tell us what we're looking at right there, Cheryl.
03:23OK, so that's the end of the cul-de-sac where I live.
03:26And the front door is where the doorbell is.
03:30I'd gone out and they'd come 11 minutes after I'd left the house.
03:34Parked on my drive and then gone down the side of the house,
03:38unlocked the gate and took the bikes.
03:41The gate's on the right-hand side.
03:44There's every possibility you could have been in at that stage.
03:46Yeah, that's what I really wish I was.
03:49But would I have even...
03:50What would they have said if I'd have...
03:51It's so difficult to know whether it's better to have been there
03:54and risk a confrontation or actually be away
03:56and just let them get on with it?
03:58Yep.
03:59OK, when you saw that footage, what went through your mind?
04:03What did you feel?
04:04I felt like it was bad as being burgled.
04:06I got goosebumps.
04:07I thought, wow, I just never expected it.
04:10And to take all three the way that they did,
04:13and they knew that the camera was there.
04:15And my little girl's bike, they took and it had a few leaves on it.
04:18And they stopped in front of the camera and just
04:20knocked the leaves off before they put it in the van.
04:24They didn't care what they were doing.
04:25No rush at all?
04:26No, no rush, it was just casual, yeah.
04:28And what time of day was that?
04:29I think it was something like 20 past 12.
04:32So like lunchtime?
04:33Yeah, yeah, right.
04:33It could even be people home from lunch at that stage.
04:36Yeah, yeah.
04:36And they're taking all the time in the world.
04:38And my littlest was four at the time,
04:40and it left her really shook up and frightened.
04:43She was thinking, are they going to come back?
04:44She couldn't sleep properly.
04:46Yeah.
04:46How about the social media side of things
04:49and sharing this with the community to protect other people?
04:52Well, where I live is a community page,
04:53so I was so angry and I posted it on there just saying,
04:56does anyone recognise these people?
04:57Et cetera.
04:57But it blew up massively.
04:59And so many people were contacting me,
05:02saying that they'd seen them,
05:03other reports of them trying to take someone's boiler
05:05while he was having it fitted off his front lawn.
05:08People kept messaging me saying, I've seen this bike.
05:11Could this be the bike?
05:12Et cetera, et cetera.
05:13So people, you know, it really did shock people.
05:15Yeah.
05:15But that social media post leads to someone reaching out to Cheryl,
05:20and we'll be finding out what they had to say a little bit later on.
05:28Hold on, who's this creeping up a driveway in Norfolk
05:33at ten to one in the morning?
05:35And what is that he's got in his hand?
05:38A big wire loop.
05:39His mate's behind him.
05:41He approaches the porch,
05:43and flashing lights say that he has access to the car.
05:48And he goes...
05:51..and drives it away.
05:55..well, those were the images that confronted Sharon
05:58when she checked her CCTV the following morning.
06:02And Sharon joins us now.
06:04Sharon, take us back to what happened that day.
06:07How aware were you that this was going on on your driveway?
06:10Not at all.
06:11The next day, we woke up and I walk out into the drive,
06:15and I'm literally...
06:18..where is my car?
06:19You're standing on the drive, shell-shocked.
06:21What did you do next?
06:22The first thing I then did is went through the security camera footage,
06:25and to watch those people on your property,
06:30and the audacity that these people have got to go and take something
06:33off someone's drive, honestly, your heart sinks.
06:37You feel violated.
06:39Tell me, then, what happens next?
06:41We obviously informed the police, and they reported back to me to say
06:45that they had found that the car had been spotted on cameras heading down to London.
06:50Were the police ever able to track it down and find out what happened to your car?
06:54No, nothing.
06:55I mean, that is a very hard lesson to learn.
06:59It's an expensive lesson to learn.
07:00Sharon, once you had that footage, what did you do with it to let other people know what was going
07:05on?
07:05I just put the video on social media and was overwhelmed by the response that I got, really.
07:13And on the back of that, another lady did actually contact me in the town
07:17and said it had actually happened to her the previous week.
07:20And were there similarities between what had happened to her and what happened to you?
07:24Yeah, it was a similar time, that window between one and two in the morning.
07:29What's been the outcome?
07:30How much have you changed about the way that you look after your property now?
07:34Oh, well, the thing is, Matt, we'd never heard about a Faraday box.
07:39And I do think there should have been people in place that could have told us about it.
07:44For example, the garage.
07:45When we later went in to tell them, they then told us that this key could go to sleep
07:51if you hold it down for five seconds.
07:52So, had we done that, they would have not been able to get a signal.
07:57I think we'll file that under information you could have used before the car was stolen.
08:02Yes.
08:02So, that's the car. Tell me about your property.
08:06Have you improved security on your property with a view to preventing it happening again?
08:11Yeah. I mean, the camera system we've completely overhauled.
08:14And we've also got another security thing we can put onto the steering wheel.
08:17So, if anyone wants to get into the car, it sends our house alarm off straight away.
08:22Well, listen, I hope sharing the story has helped a little bit.
08:25And it sounds like all the changes that you've made should give you a bit of peace of mind.
08:31Thank you ever so much.
08:31Yeah, definitely.
08:37Farming is the backbone of Britain, but with an estimated £44.1 million worth of goods
08:44robbed from UK farmers in 2024, agricultural crime is a real problem.
08:50Doorbell cameras don't just help urban communities, though.
08:53They can be a useful tool in the fight against rural crime as well.
08:57So, Anton, dressed as a peaky blinder in wellies, has gone to see how farmers can tighten up their security.
09:05People think of farms as safe havens, away from the bright lights and the busy streets of the city.
09:11Fluffy sheep and men wearing tweed.
09:14But these places have got vast amounts of expensive equipment and they've got long perimeters.
09:20And this can make them vulnerable to crime and opportunistic thieves.
09:24Anton's in North Wales meeting fifth generation farmers George and Will Tomlinson
09:29to see about providing extra security for the whole herd.
09:33Hi, Will, George, pleased to meet you.
09:35How's it going?
09:36So, what sort of stuff do you keep on a farm like this?
09:39So, being a dairy farm, we obviously have a few cows. We have 550 milking cows.
09:44And we've got five tractors, four telehandlers, mowers, drills, cultivators, all sorts of equipment.
09:51The farm spans 1,500 acres.
09:53Have you experienced crime or criminal behaviour in the past?
09:57We've had a couple of things pinched and we actually had bikes stolen.
10:02This is an impressive piece of kit. I imagine it's got quite a lot of monetary value as well.
10:07I can't remember the top of my head, but brand new, £120,000, £140,000.
10:11Yeah, so it's really important to keep them safe, just considering where you park it,
10:15maybe blocking it in, things like that, and make it really difficult for criminals to access.
10:19And the other thing is, one of the big problems we faced in the police was tackling
10:23people who were stealing the GPS units.
10:26Yeah.
10:26Have you got one on this tractor?
10:27Yeah, so the yellow little piece of the dome on the top, that's part of the GPS.
10:31You know, in my experience, we've stopped criminals where we've had
10:34up to ten of these units in one vehicle.
10:38So one option could also be to install cameras or lighting with activation sensors.
10:45So let's go and see where we can put some cameras up around here
10:49that would have the best effect in keeping the place safe.
10:52So given this is the entrance to the yard and you can see all your tractors, if you
10:57put the camera up there, it will capture anybody coming into this yard.
11:01This would work really well, I reckon, in a position like that.
11:07So one of the things I've noticed walking around your farm, it's all the tools that are
11:12left lying around. Not only is that worth some money to a thief, you can also use these things
11:17to help break into other parts of the farm. Just making sure you and encouraging your staff
11:22to put the tools away at the end of the day.
11:24We try and keep this farm as tidy as possible, but sometimes when you are pretty hectic,
11:29it does get a bit messy than it needs to be. So we'll definitely take that on board.
11:37With security in the yard sorted, Anton takes it out into the fields.
11:43So we thought we'd bring you to show you some of the beef carriers that we've got here on farm.
11:47Come on, Angus! Come on!
11:51There's about 80 in this group. They're worth now about £1,500, £2,000 apiece.
11:58How difficult is it to keep a herd like this safe?
12:01So it's a massive worry for us because it happened four weeks ago, we had some people
12:06driving around the fields and if those gates are left open and then the cows get out,
12:10it's extremely hard to get them back. So the important bit is about making sure your gates
12:14are shut, properly padlocked and that you make sure your hinges are also secured because they
12:19can be the weak points on any gate. And you can see here how Gav is looking after your herds
12:25and he's valuable as well, isn't he?
12:27Yeah, a good working dog could be £10,000 easy and it's a member of the family as well.
12:34The last thing we want to lose is a dog.
12:36With the amount of land you've got to cover, I would suggest, as we've discussed,
12:40keeping your gates properly secure, keeping your equipment blocked in where you can,
12:45fitting cameras at the access points, particularly where you've got valuable stock or equipment.
12:51And also engaging with the local police. Every police area in the country has got rural crime
12:58teams and they are specialists in helping the agricultural community deal with crime and
13:04anti-social behaviour.
13:06Perfect. We'll definitely keep it in mind and thank you for the pointers.
13:10Well, thanks very much for having me on your farm today. It's been really enjoyable.
13:15I'm sorry, you've left the gate open. Oh, heck.
13:27Fly tipping is becoming a real problem in the UK with over a million incidents reported to councils
13:33every year. More worryingly, it's on the rise. Have a look at what James in Dudley Court on the
13:40camera around the back of his business. Right, it's broad daylight. A black car is making its way
13:48into the road. He parks, gets out of the car, opens the boot and out of the back come two
13:59bin bags
14:01and he just chucks them by the side of the road. Unbelievable. That is now officially somebody else's
14:09problem. There we go. James joins me now. James, that's shocking stuff when you see it. When did you
14:16first notice this was a problem? It's always been a problem. We've been in about 18 months and it was
14:20really, really bad when we first moved in. We got in contact with the council. They did start moving
14:26it, but obviously it just starts all over again. As soon as someone just puts one being bad there,
14:30people just think they can just keep adding to it and adding to it.
14:33I mean, have you got good council tips nearby that they could use if they wanted to?
14:38A hundred percent. There's probably two within about five miles of us. The annoying thing is,
14:43it's people in normal cars. If it was vans, if it was companies that the council doesn't allow to
14:51get into the tips. It's just all normal people, normal vehicles. Look at that, the pile has exploded.
14:57He's got a full boot there. It's disgusting and they deserve to be reported and fined for doing it.
15:04Yeah. At some point you decide that you've got to do something about it. When you're finally,
15:11and you excuse the pun, tipped over the edge and you get the chance to confront somebody right in
15:17the act of fly tipping. Let's have a look at that right now. So here he is, he's got a
15:23cardboard box
15:23in one hand and he chucks it back. What do you decide to do now?
15:29We managed to follow him on our cameras. So I confronted him with his corks.
15:35You know, that's something that the police advise not to do, but let's have a look at that right now.
15:45You dumping the rubbish down there yesterday? Me? Yeah. What rubbish? A cardboard box. Oh,
15:52I can't leave it over there. Why would you dump it over there? Because I see there's many boxes.
15:58Just go and get it. No problem. I'm sorry. I mean, he's apologetic. Yeah. That's great doorbell
16:05detective work, James, to let everybody know your place is not a dumping ground and neither is the rest
16:10of the UK. So good on you, mate. Yeah, no, I appreciate that. Thank you.
16:16Really shocking stuff. And Anton, I have to say, I've confronted a few fly tippers over the years.
16:21They don't strike me as very nice people, the ones I've met. A good idea to go toe-to-toe
16:26with them?
16:27I would never advise that because you don't know who you're dealing with. They're brazen, so you
16:33confronted them, you don't know what the outcome's going to be. So what can we do about it to stop
16:37it
16:37happening? Protect your land if you can. So making sure your gates are secured and in good working
16:43order. Some entrances to land, I've seen people put in concrete bollards and blocks to stop vehicles
16:48getting onto it. If you can get a recording system up to capture these people in the act,
16:53number plates, descriptions, you feed that back into the local authority, the environment agency.
16:58They can then have something to work with to stop these people and to hold them to account.
17:04Thank you, Anton.
17:09You know, we've all been there. You get home after your holiday jet-lagged,
17:13tired and ready to hit the hay because you're desperate for some shut-eye. But how much in that
17:19moment do we think to check our property? Well, when you hear from Jason and what he faced
17:25after returning from a lovely holiday in the United States, you might just want to give it
17:30the once-over. Jason, it's lovely to have you here. Hi, Matt. I know what it's like you get home.
17:35You're shattered, aren't you? But was it a good holiday? First things first. It was outstanding.
17:39It was one of those tick-box holidays. A driving holiday. Flew into LA, hired a soft-top Mustang,
17:47Yosemite, Vegas, California, all those lovely places. Yeah, it was beautiful.
17:52Coming home from the West Coast, you are jet-lagged, aren't you?
17:55Incredibly. Really. I know that feeling. So you get home, you go to bed. What's the next thing that happens?
18:02So we woke up early. We have a doorbell, which regularly pings, but we kind of thought nothing
18:09of it. And then Dion, my partner, saw some activity. Three yous, and you see one of them
18:17come straight up past my car and attempt to see if the door is open. Let's have a look at
18:23that footage
18:23now. Here we go. So there's your front doorbell. There's the camera. Here comes a pair of high-vis
18:30trainers. And a guy in a hoodie clearly doesn't want to show his face. Tries the front door. No go.
18:37Back off. Slinks into the night. You see that footage. Obviously it's worrying, but you must have
18:43thought, oh, that was a close shave. We got away with that one. Dion was very worried. I was more,
18:50I was relaxed because they didn't get in. And you know, because we're so tired, we drift off back to
18:56sleep. And it's not until we wake up a little bit more in the day. I think we actually, we
19:02should
19:02just check the shed. And two of our bikes had been stolen. Electric bikes. With all the bits
19:09that was on them, just short of £5,000. Pride and joy. Very upsetting.
19:15OK, so I know you went onto social media to see what was happening in the neighbourhood. What did you
19:20find there? We posted a picture of the bikes just to see if anybody had seen them. And social media
19:27just erupted. It turned out we were one. We think of around between 18 to 20 robberies on that night.
19:33It was massive. Conservatories broken into, a car was stolen and joyridden. There was houses broken
19:38into. There's lots of thefts. The neighbourhood site quickly fills with comments from others who've
19:44been visited by the same trio that evening. Some even post their doorbell footage of the gang in action.
19:52Let's have a look at some of the other footage that your neighbours came up with.
19:57OK, there's three of them trying car door handles, all with their hoods pulled up,
20:02garage doors. They've seemed to have found a car with the door open.
20:09Now we've got another house. There's a caravan and a car wedged in next to it.
20:14The lights are on in the car. They've managed to get the door open there.
20:19This is not a single event. This is a spree, isn't it? They are going from one driveway to another,
20:26one house, one door, one car to another, to see what they can get away with.
20:31So you're not the only ones affected, but you as a community effectively became doorbell detectives
20:37and started piecing... Significantly.
20:39...started piecing this whole thing together.
20:42Was there a breakthrough moment for you where you felt, hold on, we've really made progress here?
20:47So, a friend of ours called me and he made me aware of a picture on social media of the
20:54person
20:54that robbed our two bikes celebrating the success. We got hold of that and we sent it straight to the
20:59police,
21:00which cemented their case for them to take that forward and make an arrest.
21:04OK. So, he's arrested? Yes.
21:07He's charged? Yep. Pleaded guilty. And we believe he got around nine years.
21:13Wow. And not just for the night in question. There was other criminality that he's done in his past.
21:19So, one guy is convicted. We saw three in that picture. Any idea what happened to the other two?
21:25They're still at large, so they've not been found. But the person that came to our house,
21:30he obviously is now serving time.
21:33I think the thing that strikes me, Jason, is this is the product of a community coming together.
21:38100%. And deciding to do something collectively to get a result.
21:43The community were outstanding. Everybody worked together to try and help with the investigation.
21:48Really, really heartwarming. Yeah. Grouping together, sharing that information
21:52and the footage as well. That got you that result, got your conviction.
21:56You are great doorbell detectives. Thank you.
22:05When a bungling burglar decides to drop in, cameras are rolling.
22:12After he's stumbled around the store and knocked everything over, he tries to make his escape and
22:18fails. Not once. Not twice. But three times. You need to pull your trousers up, mate.
22:25Oh, hold on. Make it four. OK. I think you need a bigger ladder.
22:32Earlier, we spoke to Cheryl, who discovered that crooks in high-vis were doing dodgy pickups.
22:38Specifically, pinching her kids' bikes.
22:42Rightly appalled. You got online, didn't you, Sharon? Let everybody know what was going on.
22:48The response was incredible. But one person in particular got in touch, and that was Victoria,
22:54who joins us now. Victoria, you saw that post. What did you make of it? How did you respond?
23:00I just thought that's very similar to the situation that we'd discovered ourselves when
23:04the carpet cleaner had been taken from the doorstep.
23:07Ah, OK. So talk me through that. What happened?
23:10So I'd lent my carpet cleaner to my daughter, and she said, I'm going to leave this out for you
23:15to
23:15collect. I'll put it on the doorstep, and you can pick it up. And within a couple of hours of
23:21her
23:21leaving it out, she texted me and said, Mum, did you say that someone could come and collect that
23:25fax? Could they have it? And I was like, no, why? And she said, because some woman's just come and
23:29rang the doorbell and then walked off with it and got in a van. So then I posted on our
23:35group chat of the
23:36estate we live on to say, look, just be aware that there's somebody potentially taking things
23:41from around properties that obviously don't belong to them. And then obviously,
23:44me and Cheryl got talking, and it was obvious that it was the same people.
23:48Well, we've got the clip of your dodgy pickup. Let's have a look at it right now.
23:54There's a woman there, not in high-vis, and she's waiting. The white van is in the background behind
24:00the black car. Oh, there's the cleaner. And it's off. And it's as quick as that.
24:09When you saw that footage, what did you make of it?
24:11I was so angry. I mean, it was just the principle of the fact that it wasn't on the pavement.
24:18It
24:18wasn't by a bin. It was clearly on the property. She had to come up the drive. It was right
24:23by the
24:23front door under the porch. It clearly wasn't there for the taking. But she obviously just thought,
24:29there's no one around. No one's answered the door. I'm just going to take it. And it was just the
24:32sheer brazenness of it. Middle of the day. Didn't care.
24:35So, at this stage, you are in contact with each other. You're being classic doorbell detectives,
24:41I have to say, because you're piecing this whole thing together. What is it that you work out?
24:47Somebody tagged me and said, Cheryl, are these the same people that took the kids' bikes? And I
24:52looked straight away, yeah, it was blatantly the same people. On Victoria's piece of footage,
24:57you can see the same van, same lady. Obviously, they're just not wearing the high-vis.
25:04OK, let's have a quick look and see if we can do that comparison ourselves.
25:08There we are. On the left, there's Victoria's footage are still there. And on the right,
25:13we've got Cheryl's footage. And I'm going to say in the passenger seat there,
25:17that looks like the same woman. She's got quite distinctive hair, hasn't she?
25:24At that moment, when the penny drops and you realise that it is possibly, very likely,
25:30the same people doing it, what's that like for you guys?
25:32It's a bit of a kick, really, isn't it? Because the fact they're doing it to other people,
25:38how many others are they doing it to? It just shows that these people make a living out of doing
25:43this day in, day out. And they obviously drive around estates looking for things,
25:48and that's what they do day to day. OK, so you've made that comparison.
25:52Did you have an idea of how the police were dealing with it?
25:54They said that they found that the van was stolen two months before, and the van had been reported
26:00many a time. And they reside in Birmingham. So they were going to pass it on to the Birmingham
26:05Constabulary to deal with it.
26:06OK. Have you heard anything from the police?
26:09I didn't actually report it to the police, because to be quite honest, I didn't see the
26:12point. Because I just thought, there's bigger things for them to do than come and deal with
26:16a stolen carpet cleaner.
26:17I suppose. Guys, this feels like a really good time to bring in Anton to find out where the law
26:22stands in all of this. Anton, come on in. Grab a seat. OK, so what does the law say? Because
26:29there
26:29are people that leave things out for their neighbours to recycle or what have you. What's the difference
26:34between that and what we've just seen for Cheryl and Victoria? At the end of the day, people coming
26:40along and taking property that does not belong to them, or they don't have permission to take,
26:44is theft. It's as simple as that. There is what people know as theft by finding. So you leave
26:50something in your garden, you leave something out near the street, and you get people coming along
26:54and thinking they've got a right to take it. And the law is quite straightforward as far as that is
26:59concerned. What these people are doing is clearly wrong, and it is a crime. You've seen the footage.
27:05That doesn't feel like, you know, somebody just making an opportunistic grab. From what I can see here,
27:11it is planned, it's practised, and it's opportunistic. It's crime in plain sight.
27:19They're wearing a high-vis jacket. It's almost like it becomes an invisibility cloak, because
27:23people will see it and not think anything untoward. It's another work van with people doing
27:30legitimate things, and it clearly isn't. And that's what they're playing on.
27:34So this is their day job? This is what they do for work?
27:37This is their day job. They'll get up in the morning, they'll plan where they're going to go,
27:41and they will go out and get what they can, and then count the pennies at the end of the
27:46day.
27:46Thank you so much, Anton. Listen, guys, I mean, what a terrible thing to go
27:50through for you, for the kids. But listen, let's hope, eventually,
27:54the police do catch up with them and put a stop to all this. Thank you for joining us.
28:01If you have a video doorbell clip of crime on your doorstep, we'd love to see it.
28:07Send it along with your contact details to
28:09doorbelldetectives at purpleproductions.co.uk
28:42NDIS
28:44im
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