Hi.
Could you please give me a call back
on this number urgently?
My dogs have been taken by someone.
Please, can you call back?
I was just wondering
if anybody's handed in my puppy?
A cocker spaniel, she's white,
she's 13 months old.
She's gone missing yesterday afternoon,
and she's got no collar on.
I found your number online, and I really need your help.
OK, someone broke into my house
and stole my litter of puppies.
Can you please call me back as soon as you can?
I used to have a dog when I was little…
but Buddy was our first dog as a family.
She was tiny, so she was quite vulnerable.
It's like, you know…
having a little baby.
I think we must have gone out at about 7:30 p.m.,
and it was just a family dinner.
And when we came back,
the house had been broken into.
And the first thing I did was look for Buddy…
and I couldn't find her.
They took my dog and the car.
It's literally one of the most upsetting things
that's ever happened to me.
It's just awful.
My husband called the police.
They sort of explained,
you know, there's nothing they can do.
But my husband said he'd heard
that there was a pet detective.
Sounds arrogant but there isn't anybody in the world
that can do as good a job as I can
on the investigation of animal crime.
Nobody comes close.
I used to be in the military for 15 years,
flying helicopters.
Then I was a homicide detective
for another 15 years.
And now, I am a pet detective.
Being a homicide detective was difficult,
but being a pet detective is even harder.
As a senior detective,
I would often deal with kidnapping negotiations.
Now, I'm using the same skills
on negotiating the recovery of a stolen dog.
There is always strong demand for dogs.
But during the pandemic, that demand tripled.
There's been a number of occasions
when I've had to say to families,
"We won't get your dog back."
I was in tears most of the time at home,
but there's nothing I could really do.
When Ruby explained
the circumstances behind the burglary,
I realised that it was gonna be difficult.
I was going to have to use a whole range
of skills and techniques
to find these guys and get the dog back.
Ruby's husband said there wasn't much petrol
in the car when it was stolen.
So, straightaway, I'm thinking,
"They're going to have to find fuel."
So, I need to know every single petrol station
within a couple of miles of the house,
and there was only one.
So I've got access to the CCTV footage
and I could see three or four offenders.
So, it's a team, not an individual.
When Colin told us
he had identified the group of people,
it just seemed that there was a sliver of hope.
But, I mean, I just don't know what sort of a person
would steal a puppy.
They say you're a product of your environment.
For me, I'm making the most
of what's been placed in front of me.
These ones, these small ones there,
right now, in the market,
they're going for about 1,500.
I've seen some of them going for like two grand.
These ones here are about three grand a pup.
These big ones there, seven grand.
The colouring on this one here,
it's a good breed.
If I wasn't here with you guys now,
I'd be working right now.
So, yeah, that…
That's why, when you're out,
you have to be very vigilant,
because in the blink of an eye,
you've lost it.
There are a lot of greedy-bones.
Loads of people living a flashy lifestyle.
Everybody was getting it,
so I wanted all these things for myself.
When there's an opportunity, and money to be made,
I'm all in.
In terms of what's been made
over the past three or four years,
easily
in excess of 100 grand.
You want something, I supply it for you.
I get it for a good price,
you're not gonna complain.
People don't really ask where the dogs come from.
They just want the dog. That's it.
The Buddy case was perhaps
one of the most testing investigations
I'd worked on for many, many years.
And from the actual burglary
through to the recovery of the car was a few months.
The car crashed, so it had to be abandoned,
and eventually recovered by the police.
So, I knew
this is where we were gonna get our breakthrough.
I went to the police pound, and, bingo,
stuck underneath the seat
is a fixed penalty envelope,
so I knew the exact time and place
that that car had got that notice,
which was Stoke Newington.
I'm in this business
because it's very, very lucrative.
So, every conceivable
investigative technique is at my disposal.
But all the time,
I have to use psychology to get what I want
by letting the person know
that if I can find them, the police can find them.
Are you proud of what you do?
I'm proud of what I do for the people around me.
I help my family.
I was definitely
thinking about putting things in place
for my little ones, so when they grow up,
they might be able to have the opportunities
that weren't immediately available to me growing up.
In terms of being proud
of the stress that you cause to the people,
no, because I'm not a horrible person.
But I guess I've just prioritised
my own gains.
I'd be a fool to tell you I'm doing this
for any other reason other than to get paid.
So, I know my offenders
are operating from Stoke Newington.
We know there's going to be lots and lots of people
that know their names.
I just gotta speak to the right people.
What I did was I went amongst the community,
I said, "I want you to tell them
that I'm going to find who they are
and they're going to get prosecuted
and they'll get locked up in prison."
"However, I get the stolen dog back,
then I leave and everything goes away."
I said that a lot to a lot of different sources.
Hi, this is the detective
that's been looking for you around Stoke Newington.
And you need to know that I know where you live,
and I know that you have this stolen dog.
The message I also convey to them,
the dog doesn't get dumped.
You just need to make a car trip
to a rescue centre and hand the dog over.
Do this and I go away.
I was at the gym
and I saw a number I didn't recognise.
It was an organisation saying,
"We've got your dog."
And I said, "No."
And they said, "Yes, it's microchipped."
And I said, "Are you sure?"
And they said, "Absolutely."
And I didn't want to get my hopes up,
and I said, "Can you send me a picture?"
I just couldn't believe it.
You could tell that this dog had been abused.
She had the saddest eyes,
like she really looked like she'd been through hell.
Her face was all matted,
and it actually looked like
there was like a cigarette burn.
Here was this really depressed,
downtrodden dog.
She was really dirty, and we just gave her a bath.
And now, she's just back to her normal self,
bossing us all around.
When you think of it, one small white dog
in all of England
was like finding a needle in a haystack.
I didn't know if I was ever going to see her again.
So, I never felt so happy.
It was like a miracle, finding her.
What drives demand
is essentially what people are seeing on Instagram…
what dogs the celebrities are buying.
So, Lady Gaga, French bulldogs.
Surprise, surprise, the French bulldog
is one of the most popular dog breeds currently.
For as long as people want to use a puppy
to enhance their social media profile,
then there will be a strong demand
for certain breeds of dog.
If more people adopted rescue dogs,
then overall, the price of dogs would drop
and there'd be less incentive for the thieves
to steal those dogs.
Do you think there would be less thefts
if people just went and got rescue dogs, for example,
which there's plenty of them out there?
People don't want rescue dogs.
People want the bougie-looking dogs.
People want the dogs that make them look like
they're somebody.
A dog that, you know, they want people to lust after.
The market is the market.
So long as there's a demand…
we'll keep supplying.
And if I'm not supplying the market,
somebody else will.
It's Economics 101.