THEFT SUSPECT’S NOT SO GREAT ESCAPE
Motorcycle shop’s CCTV helps collar suspected criminal
‘It’s unbelievable. The police officer did really well to catch the guy’
Avideo showing a suspected thief crash into a car while attempting to flee police has gone viral.
The video, posted online by Yorkshire dealer Jem Speed Shop had over 150,000 views in less than a week.
Jem’s is located in Bradford Road, Batley, not far from Padgetts, famous for fielding top TT racers such as Bruce Anstey. The main footage was recorded by its CCTV cameras and then spliced together by Josh Gudgeon who helps with Jem’s social media and YouTube channel. It shows a man arrive on a Yamaha YBR125, before leaving it when he appears to steal and drive off in a workman’s pick-up. Later, a different motorcycle arrives, the pillion gets off and attempts to ride off on the Yamaha. A policeman gives chase and the biker immediately collides with the Jaguar. He’s then apprehended and protests his innocence, before he’s driven off in a police van.
Gudgeon said: “The police were at the engineering firm behind us after they’d had a flat-bed truck stolen.
“We have loads of CCTV and they watched it and worked out the truck thief had arrived on a stolen bike which he’d parked outside our shop.
“As police were watching the footage, a guy on a motorbike pulls up and his passenger runs out to retrieve the stolen bike which he’d left earlier as he’d driven off in the stolen van. “The first bike leaves but the second one is struck by a Jag as a police officer and a customer ran to stop him.” T he whole incident happened to be captured on video as Jem’s were already recording for the shop’s weekly blog. Gudgeon said: “It’s unbelievable what happened. The police officer did really well as he caught the guy and, together with another customer, detained him. “The police back-up was also really quick and the guy was arrested and it looked like he had ankle injuries. The driver of the Jag wasn’t hurt.”
See the video on YouTube.
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