Page 74 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

completely throwing his balance so that he spun around comically on the
spot and then fell to the ground.

Wheezing like an asthmatic, I pinned the lad to the pavement, and he was
shocked enough not to struggle as I locked his hands behind his back with
my handcuffs. As I clicked the second one on his wrist, Martin pulled up in the
Zulu and I could see he had the other burglar equally nicked in the back
seat, along with some jewellery and cash he’d pinched from the house
before making a run for it, Martin told me later he’d mounted the pavement
and blocked he kids exit and grabbed him as he was trying to scramble over
the bonnet of the Zulu. Other officers had arrived, and my prisoner was taken
off to Erdington nick.

I spent a few seconds before leaving the scene thanking the community
spirited citizen who had foiled the inevitable escape of my burglar. I was
worried the youth might make a complaint of assault against the man, but he
said he wasn’t worried. As it turned out the youth was too embarrassed to
even mention it.

This would be my first introduction to two of the D3 Detectives. A very dapper
man smoking a small cigar introduced himself as DC Ray Bird and his
colleague DC Dave Storr. It was agreed they would take over from here as
they had been interested in the activity of these two prolific burglars for some
time. Ray explained that he had several unsolved burglary crime reports on
his desk where the same Modus Operandi (M.O.) had been described by the
complainants, i.e. access via rear of house, smashing a pane of glass to gain
entry, stealing small item such as jewellery and cash that were easy to stuff in
their pockets.
Martin and I made up our pocket note books, wrote out our statements and
handed them to Ray and Dave. By the end of the shift we heard they had
cleared up half a dozen house break-ins and recovered a stash of jewellery
that would ultimately be identified by satisfied victims. I sat down at the
clunky old typewriter to knock out the Burglary Dwelling House Crime Report.
The job is never finished until he paperwork is done was a mantra, I would
hear time and time again.

I was present when the two young men were charged with burglary by
Sergeant Reaney. Caught bang-to-rights as they were, both pleaded guilty
at court and received custodial sentences.

This was my second arrest for crime in as many weeks and I have to say the
thrill of the chase, capture and closure of detected crime never left me
throughout my service. Having had two tastes of it, I hungered for more.

This was by now the tail end of summer 1980. Warm days and evenings Page74
brought an increasing number of miscreants onto our streets, looking for any