Dressed in their orange high-vis jackets, a gang of workmen down a manhole would usually pass as nothing more than an ordinary everyday irritation.
But in reality, gangs of brazen thieves have been dressing up as contractors to illegally cordon off areas, dig up pavements and splice into electricity cables.
Police bodycam footage from Tuesday evening captured the moment three men were allegedly caught stealing underground cables – just yards from a police station.
In the clip, which has been shared by police, armed officers and their dogs can be seen swarming a manhole in Birmingham city centre.
The gang, who were wearing orange high-vis overalls, were reported to police by members of the public at 7.30pm on Tuesday.
They were spotted allegedly trying to steal cables on Great Charles Queensway, which is located close to West Midlands Police HQ Lloyd House.
Bodycam footage captured the moment officers surrounded the manhole as one of the suspects climbed up the ladder.
One police officer can be heard shouting: ‘Police with a dog! Come out now or the dog’s coming in!’
And as he emerged from the tunnel, another officer said: ‘Good evening, keep coming up the ladder.’
Three men, aged 48, 45, and 37, were arrested and a van loaded with cables was seized by police.
On Wednesday, West Midlands Police said in a statement: ‘This is the moment we arrested a gang of suspected underground cable thieves in Birmingham city centre.
‘Firearms officers who were patrolling nearby were flagged down by members of the public as a group of men were trying to steal cables on Great Charles Queensway at around 7.30pm yesterday.
‘Two men were arrested on suspicion of theft and a van carrying cables was recovered.
‘We were made aware of that a third suspect was underground, and officers, with the help of Police Dog Riot encouraged him to climb up the ladder and onto the street, where he was also arrested on suspicion of theft.
‘Three men, aged 48, 45 and 37, remain in custody today.’
Det Supt Dave Sproson, of Birmingham Police, added: ‘This was a fantastic response from our firearms, dogs and Birmingham officers, in bringing three suspects into custody quickly.’
The alleged theft comes after a gang was jailed in March last year for diverting the electricity supply to power more than 100 secret Albanian-run cannabis farms.
The men, who dressed in high-vis jackets, worked under the cover of being a legitimate company called Elev8 Civils and Utilities.
They then would use barriers to illegally cordon off areas, dig up pavements and splice into electricity cables.
Their audacious daylight robbery enabled electricity worth millions of pounds to be abstracted into producing at least £21million worth of drugs, investigators said today.
As well as being criminal, their actions – which covered 32 different police force areas across the UK – were also highly dangerous.
On a mobile phone belonging to Elev8 Civils and Utilities director Andrew Roberts, 42, police found a shocking image of him with his face purple and singed, apparently caused by one of the cables they cut into blowing up.
Meanwhile footage seemingly filmed by a concerned householder showed small explosions as the gang dug into electricity lines on a street in Middlesbrough.
The group was headed by Roberts, from Wigan, Greater Manchester, and fellow company director Ross McGinn, 33 from Huyton, Merseyside.
Both men had LinkedIn profiles in which they posted photos of apparently legitimate work to promote the company.
The gang were jailed for a total of 28 years.
