Out on the road with the RCU, Roger is sitting up on a bridge over the M5 near Tiverton with Mark waiting for a vehicle they've been alerted to which may be involved in the supply of drugs. He's sitting up nice and warm in the Beemer, while Mark is freezing his nuts off watching for the car from the bridge rail, and Giles is out on the motorway in another car actively hunting. He's found it, so Roger and Mark charge down to join him. It's a textbook stop, and the driver is quickly out. While he's being dealt with, Giles spots the female passenger fidgeting around her bust, and bolts out of his car to stop her. She claims not to know the driver, and is not at all happy at being handcuffed – standard procedure for a drugs search. Back at the nick, it's strip search time, and the passenger's wrap of heroin is discovered in her bra. In the car, however, Roger's sure there's more drugs – but he can't find them, so in goes a hugely enthusiastic spaniel called Oscar who has a much better nose than Roger does. Success! Out comes a brown sock stuffed with a whopper bag full of what looks like heroin – and there's a lot of it – which now won't be hitting the streets. No wonder Roger's grinning.
Back in Exmouth, now with Gareth and Finn. They've been called in to deal with the aftermath of a spot of domestic disharmony. A young man is being sought for hurling a rock through his girlfriend’s window, and finding him is Finn's speciality. Gareth wants to get it sorted as soon as possible to avoid having to keep on coming back through the night, particularly as the youth concerned as already threatened one of the local officers. Finn is onto a track at once, and it doesn't take long to find the suspect, who is halted by the threat of the dog. He is, not surprisingly, unhappy at being filmed, to the point of threatening to smash the camera. He is, however, somewhat overwrought, and seems unable to stop talking as he's guided to a freshly arrived van. Finn has done the business again, and gets the chance to play with his favourite reward – a fabric cylinder thingy.
Mark is out and about with Luggy in the black ST, looking for bad drivers who can't tell they're coppers. They find themselves behind a silver Subaru Impreza, containing three young people, whose driver is delightfully oblivious to their presence, and thus driving at over a ton on a dual carriageway. Finally, he undertakes a fiat Punto, and this is enough to get him pulled. The driver seems somewhat blasé at being pulled and listens without too much concern to Mark's explanation as to why he's been stopped. He has no points on his license. Yet. On goes the lecture, as the road they're on is a bit of a blackspot, and Mark points out that it'll only be a matter of time at this rate before the driver puts his car through a wall – hopefully that might make a difference. You never know.
The TAG are out and about in Torquay preparing to take down a man wanted for assault, who is known for being armed – the word is that he has a houseful of machetes, knives and possibly even firearms. This being the case, subterfuge is required, so four of the team cram themselves into a white mondeo – in their protective gear – while John and Simon are out and about on the street in disguise. Their boiler suits don't quite disguise the outline of their stab vests, but enough if you're not expecting coppers in green. The strike is absolutely textbook, and he complies under the threat of tasers, cuffed on the floor to the sound of shouting and barking dogs. Within minutes, he's in the back of a van and off to the nick.
Chris and Mike are trundling around Exeter, and crim radars are being monumentally spiked by a van which looks 'a bit of a shed'. A technical term, perhaps. It has something white spilling out of the back, leaving a powdery trail for them to follow – assuming the battered vehicle does decide to make off. Once stopped, Chris reveals that the PNC shows the van as uninsured, not to mention the flapping back door and escaping powder. The driver is, once again, insured on a 'traders policy' which necessitates a call to the car dealer for whom the driver claims to be working to demonstrate that he is, in fact, not covered by a traders policy. They've drawn something of a crowd, particularly as Roger and Giles have now joined them as well, and they are far more interesting than whatever work the guys at the end of the road are supposed to be doing. Formalities completed, the van is handed over to the tender mercies of the 'Grim Reaper', a suitably skeletally decorated recovery lorry.
Roger and Giles are up on a bridge over the M5 near Exeter. Their crim radars have beens piked by a car that's just passed the bridge as it's a powerful vehicle and a young driver. A standard stop, perhaps, until Giles opens the door and is hit by the sweet, sweet whiff of cannabis. The driver admits to a small stash in a grinder, so it's off to Collumpton nick to do the formalities as they need to be sure that this is all there is. On the way in, the driver is keen to know why he's been stopped, and Roger advises him that they have the right to stop him under the Road Traffic Act 1988. Once at Collumpton, there's nothing else outstanding, apart from the contents of the grinder, which Giles quickly uncovers and prompts a cannabis warning. The irony is that, but for the cannabis, he'd have been on his way in less than five minutes. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
Chris and Mike are in Collumpton, parked up at a service station waiting for a man who has dinged their ANPR. As he's filling up with petrol, they amuse themselves by putting their coats on, changing the weather and getting into an entirely different car for a bit, before resuming in their original one as he pulls out. This has clearly got them both into a chirpy mood, and the banter flies as Chris attempts to explain that the car is showing no insurance. Bizarrely, the man has two cars, one of which is insured, while the other's is going to be picked up on Friday. He has, it appeared, forgotten that his policy's third party cover for other vehicles applies only to cars that belong to other people. The driver seems remarkably unfazed at the impending seizure of his car, and his passenger is totally unconcerned – though she doesn't yet know that Shanks's Pony awaits. Once she does, however, the prospect of a mile walk does not go down at all well. Calls for lifts fall on deaf ears, so off they go – forcing Chris to have to publicly apologise to the people of Collumpton who will now not be getting their Betterware for three days. Chirpy to the end, the lads finish the stop with a nice bit of Nancy Sinatra.
