Exeter is clearly a ‘happening’ place to be. Darryl is on his way to a punch up in a local drinking establishment – and it’s a Sunday night! It’s reported that someone’s been glassed, and Darryl is likely to be the first to arrive. Murphy won’t be much help in this situation, so Darryl heads in on his own and nearly finds himself going face first into a flying fist. Fortunately, he only needs his glasses to drive, and they’ve been left on the dash in his van. Whatever fisticuffing has been happening seems to be over, bar the shouting of the detainee on the floor who seems eager to advise the camera that he is a trophy-winning athlete, though he doesn’t seem immediately intent of offering Darryl his name. The actual victim of the glassing emerges and advises that the bloke wasn’t involved – but having attempted to punch Darryl he’s in custody for that so the point is moot.
Out and about with the RCU, on the hunt for a suspected drugs dealer expected to visit Exeter to do some dealing. Mark, with Becky Jones, is waiting on a junction, while Giles is lurking on a nearby A-road keeping lookout. Jim is running the operation, and Roger’s waiting with Jon nearby. It takes forty minutes before the car comes by, and it’s shifting pretty fast, so everyone gets going. The suspect vehicle speeds until the traffic builds to the point that he can’t anymore, at which point the pack catch up with him and co-ordinate like a well oiled machine to pull off a perfect stop.
Mike and Chris are in Plymouth behind a car which is twitching their crim radars. The driver is clearly keen to avoid them, and a stop is therefore pretty inevitable. He has no front numberplate, and was apparently ‘stopped for that’ yesterday. His junior passengers are not properly secured; and Mike, being a top notch traffic cop, is not remotely impressed by this. They are even less impressed to discover that the driver has no license. Neither does his passenger, so he’s got no supervisor and no L plates. Chris is becoming more and more convinced that he’s been given false details, and the man’s increasing agitation is not helping as he’s hurling insults about. Fortunately, he is who he says he is. But his next problem is transporting three under-fives home given that it’s ten miles away and his car’s just been seized.
Catching up with the TAG, they’re in Newton Abbott, preparing to raid two properties simultaneously, as drugs are being dealt from one of them, but they’re not sure which, despite checking the area out the previous week disguised as council workmen. As always, they troop on foot – in full riot gear – from their vans to the locations, and the raids commence. They get a singularly profanity strewn welcome from the occupant, though the guinea pig caged in the corner has no comment. This is the property which doesn’t have the drugs. The B team struck the right place – which is probably why the door there was reinforced.
Jon and Roger are in Kingsbridge, on their way to assist Giles with a stopped a van which has two occupants and a fair amount of stuff to search in it. While Jon and Roger deal with the passenger, Giles deals with a criminal issue that is generally more confined to rural counties: red diesel. Used for farm and construction vehicles that aren’t usually on the roads, it’s got a lower level of duty on it and is, therefore half the price of regular diesel. It’s dyed red to identify it, and any non-agricultural vehicle that’s using it is evading tax. Like this one. Things are not improved by the discovery of a whopper knife in the back, and a smaller one in the front. It turns out, however, that the driver of the van is a tree surgeon who has forgotten to lock them away.
Back on ANPR work. On such occasions, RCU team members pair up with other officers, so Taff is with Rachel Cole and catch up with a Highways Maintenance lorry which has gone through a red light on a major motorway junction. Taff hastily stops him, a youngish looking man, and discovers that the guy only has a provisional license. Which has expired. Quite why he was driving a works lorry doesn’t bear thinking about.
Jon and Mike are on the M5, heading East behind a caravan which looks singularly battered. Mike decides to pull it just in case there’s a problem and they carry out checks. These come up fine, until they make a startling discovery on the back seat of the 4x4 towing the caravan – a Raccoon. He turns out to be a pet – called Vince – and he sparks a superbly bad cod American accent from Mr Brown. Sort of like Dick van Dyke in reverse...
