What a stolen bag of coffee and the Kilburn Circle tell us about crime in London

The theft of a bag of coffee is neither the crime of the century, nor is it worthy of national news coverage. Or so it seems. 

What it represents to Inspector Yu Zhang, who I spent a day with, is a gateway into a seedy underworld connected to a network of many other crimes across London. 

Crime in Kilburn has been ticking away over the last few years. A leafy and sunny suburb filled with independent cafes and shops, it should be the chosen spot for anyone to spend a weekend. 

But locals say the atmosphere has changed. Some now feel intimidated walking down the high street, while drug users have been known to use nearby children’s playgrounds as places to shoot up. 

The statistics reflect those concerns. Kilburn, which straddles both Brent and Camden, has a crime rate 96% higher than the national average and 66% higher than other London boroughs. 

Part of the problem, officers say, is that the area sits between separate police command units. 

Sergeant Ben Shearman said: ‘We did try and map the crime hotspots in the area, but we realised it was easier to just draw one circle around Kilburn.’ 

Operation Terminos

Now the Metropolitan Police has completed Operation Terminos’s Week of Action, targeting crime across the neighbourhood. 

Inspector Zhang spent months collating data from three units before launching the operation. 

‘This has largely been led by the community,’ he said. ‘And is a fresh new approach as we target Kilburn as a whole. 

‘What seems like relatively low-level incidents can lead to big problems and feed into larger criminal networks.’ 

Shoplifting to order

That thinking helps explain why officers were called to investigate something as minor as a bag of coffee left outside a shop. 

Police had received reports that CCTV showed a known thief dropping off the bag, filled with unopened packets. 

Standing outside the shop as officers questioned the owner, Inspector Zhang explained why it mattered. 

‘We suspect shoplifters, who are usually looking for quick money to fuel drug addictions, are given orders on what to steal,’ he said. 

‘They then take the goods to smaller businesses, who sell them as their own stock but at a much cheaper price. But this can be very hard to prove.’ 

The shopkeeper insisted the man had simply dropped the bag off and said he would return for it later. 

‘But how can we prove this wasn’t the case?’ Inspector Zhang said. ‘Yet it’s obvious what has happened here.’ 

As officers spoke to the shopkeeper, a steady stream of people tried to enter the shop behind them. 

An oddly large number approached the door, seemingly unaware, or unconcerned, that police were questioning staff inside. 

Business owners in Kilburn frequently complain about shoplifting

At a nearby Tesco, the aftermath of another attempted theft was still being cleaned up when Metro arrived. 

A security guard was mopping the floor where two smashed bottles of red wine had spilled across the entrance. 

The smell hung in the air as he pushed the mop across the sticky floor. 

Despite the mess, he seemed remarkably cheerful. 

A shoplifter had tried to steal the bottles moments earlier, but smashed them on the ground when he was stopped. 

The guard shrugged as he worked. 

‘What’s the point in trying to steal if you just end up smashing them,’ he said. ‘Might as well try and take them.’ 

Although the suspected thief fled the shop, officers later caught up with him and made an arrest. 

E-bikes stopped and seized

The operation has also targeted the transport criminals use to move drugs and stolen goods across London. 

Officers spent part of the day stopping e-bikes, e-scooters and motorbikes passing through the area. 

On the day Metro joined them, five were found to be illegal after being modified to exceed the legal speed limit of 15.5mph. 

At one point I twisted the throttle on one of the seized bikes myself and felt it rev far beyond the limit. 

But not everyone was happy to be stopped. 

One man began shouting angrily at officers as they tried to test his e-scooter, insisting they were targeting him because of his race, even as riders in front of him were also being pulled over. 

PCSO Dave Baker said: ‘If they are souped up enough, they are then classed as a motorcycle. 

‘And then they would be illegal as the driver would not be insured.’ 

Hundreds of stolen phones and knives found

The clampdown on shoplifting has also led officers to uncover other offences. 

During the operation, £390 worth of shoplifted medication and beauty products from Boots were recovered, along with two knives and quantities of Class A and Class B drugs. 

And in their search for where stolen goods were being funnelled, police also uncovered 1,000 suspected stolen phones in the back of a Kilburn shop. 

Four men, aged 22, 25, 34 and 63, were arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods, possession of drugs and intent to supply. 

Inspector Zhang said: ‘Seizures such as this show that we are not only targeting individual phone snatchers, but also those who handle and profit from stolen devices.’ 

Just hours before the operation began, another example of the area’s problems had already unfolded. 

The Baba Tang restaurant, a few minutes’ walk from Kilburn High Street, had its glass smashed and crates of alcohol stolen overnight. 

A staff member told Metro: ‘I came in and the whole front glass was smashed to pieces, and I saw on CCTV this guy carrying out bottles of beer, wine and spirit. 

‘It’s cost £300 with emergency insurance. But the way the area is, it was not a surprise.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

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