Jayne was in the community centre today and heard a great story about a recent crime there.

A lady had left her handbag lying around and someone had gone through it and taken some car keys from it. A few days later the car was stolen and abandoned.

Meanwhile a boy had been hanging around the centre a lot and causing trouble. The Manager talked to the PCSOs about him and they were all ready to come down and move him along the next time he turned up.

And then, someone noticed that one of the CCTV cameras in the center was missing, so the Manager went through the recordings to see when it went. What she found was a perfect close up of that same boy reaching out for it before it went dark.

Right on cue, the boy returned to the centre, so the police were called. They turned up and found that the boy had the stolen car keys on him. I don’t think you get much more red-handed than returning to the scene of a crime, with the evidence on you, after making sure the cameras get a good close-up of you.

A good result for the police too. It just goes to show that they can catch criminals if the public will give a little bit of help – like finding out who did it, gathering all the evidence and then locating the person for them. I know the police complain about all the paperwork they have to do, but in this case it was all that was left for them after the public did all the actual police work for them!