Met shows off Bumblebee success

The biggest Operation Bumblebee roadshow organised by the Metropolitan Police is to be held in the City of London in September.

Officers hope that London commuters who work in central London will be attracted to the exhibition, which will feature stolen goods worth millions of pounds.

The City Operation Bumblebee roadshow comes after eight exhibitions around the capital brought spectacular results: 26,604 people visited the shows at Buckingham Gate, Tufnell Park, Richmond, Harrow, Woolwich, Barking, Croydon and Uxbridge.

Police identified 375 burglary victims and returned 869 items.

Senior Met officers, overwhelmed by the operation's success, are considering finding a central site where stolen property can be put on show permanently.

In an interview in the Met's newspaper, The Job, Commander Tony Comben said: 'People who work in the City live in the suburbs and hopefully will be able to pop in during their lunch breaks.

Future proposals for Bumblebee include extending roadshows to more boroughs and setting up a data base on five sites where photographs of stolen and recovered property could be made available.

In the year since the anti-burglary campaign has gone Met-wide, burglary has dropped by 13 per cent. Arrests and clear-up rates have increased. In raids carried out in the year through to June, 3,002 premises were searched and 2,308 people arrested.

Other police forces across Britain are keen to set up similar anti-burglary campaigns.