Great Western Coffee Shop

Unpleasant happening. Anyone able to assist?

One wiuld hope that he’salso put in a ‘proper’ report to BTP as well as tweeting about it. Only the BTP can request the CCTV footage

Reported to GWR and BTP, yes

The lad's not having a great time, what with the falling apart of the club to which he'd given so much and now this.  The stolen bag and other items will obviously mean a great deal to him.

As one who can remember going to the dining car to get a meal and confidently leaving luggage whilst doing so, I'm very sad that those days are gone.  I don't think this is just "rose coloured spectacles".  I think there are more people with less respect for others and others' property

I kind of agree, though there's no doubt CCTV on new trains (and the odd retrofit to old trains) has helped dissuade thieves.  I remember being told about organised gangs roaming around on trains between Birmingham and Wolverhampton back in the 1990s when there was hardly any CCTV, even at the stations, and it was often easier to travel without a ticket.  I'm sure it wasn't just the West Midlands.

I would be interested to see some statistics over that sort of time period if anyone has them?

A week isn't actually that long - it can take at least that to source the CCTV footage - so there's still hope, I reckon

There was that incident many years ago where a stolen suitcase at Reading turned out to have a bomb in it. (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/terrified-thief-foils-terrorist-bombers-1415372.html) Or at least bomb making equipment.

BTP used to have a series of videos about the distraction techniques used by people to lift luggage when people are boarding but I can't find them now.

CCTV is not used as a tool for locating lost property – downloading and viewing CCTV footage is a very costly and time-consuming process, with no guarantee it will yield any results. GWR receive around 500 lost property reports each week, so it would simply be impractical to download and view CCTV footage for all of these.

Customers are entitled to request footage that train companies may hold of them – the key point being footage of them, not of their belongings.

Requests will be considered but not necessarily granted – there are many factors that will influence a decision.

The BTP can access CCTV footage, but realistically they are unlikely to do for a lost/stolen bag. It was a three hour train journey, so that's three hours of footage to trawl through for each camera. If somebody did take the bag, what help would CCTV footage actually be - the perpetrator would likely have their face obscured.

Customers regularly report 'stolen' luggage, and in most cases the items were not stolen at all - simply left on the train. It is very easy to become disoriented on a train carriage as both ends look the same. Customers will board at one end, place their bag in the rack and then sit down somewhere in the middle of the carriage. At the end of their journey they will head to the rack to find their bag missing, but it's actually exactly where they left it - at the other end of the carriage.

This incident isn't about lost property though. It's a theft.

What's the point of having a CCTV system if it's not going to be used to gather evidence of a crime?

As mentioned, the majority of 'thefts' that customers report, turn out not to be thefts at all, but simply lost property.

Ultimately, the use of CCTV to gather evidence is entirely down to the BTP. In all likelihood they would determine that this was not a high enough priority to warrant the time and expense. 

But there's no indication that, in this instance, this is about lost property.

I'm always very dubious of supposed 'facts' claiming to be 'the majority'. Without statistics and empirical evidence it's nothing more than opinion.

GWR could of course look through the CCTV for evidence of the theft. But no doubt again the excuse will be its not worth the time and expense. To them of course. The customers who experience crime on one of their trains just have to suck it up.

[Opinion not fact] It's perfectly possible that this theft was committed by someone who does this habitually. To not gather evidence means they are unlikely to be caught. So more customers could be victims.

Is it the case that only crimes against the person will warrant a search of CCTV? Sad state of affairs if so.

On a related note.

"Please use the luggage racks provided" and often PA announcements about luggage on seats and in aisles.

But...

"Please do not leave items unattended" and "Keep an eye on your personal belongings at all times."

No doubt.  But then we can't always go with the majority.   The majority of passengers who go through security screening at airports aren't carrying anything dangerous with intent to harm, but we're mighty glad these things are checked because of a tiny minority.

Gareth tweeted earlier today that BTP are investigating

Excellent. That's as it should be. Not dismissed as being too costly/time consuming to be investigated, or assumptive that the customer forgot their property.

Not just a problem for rugger player Gareth ...

https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/23396749.chicago-bound-man-suitcase-stolen-train-heathrow/

and the cops are on the case ...

https://www.eveshamjournal.co.uk/news/23408359.cctv-released-spate-bag-thefts-trains-near-evesham/

I hope this pair get caught and have the book thrown at them