Award-winning garden centre boss Charlie Groves has been making TV and national newspaper headlines after turning detective and tracking down a woman shoplifter who stole toys from his store.

Charlie, who runs Groves Nurseries and Garden Centre in Bridport, Dorset, watched CCTV recordings of a woman concealing Jellycat toys in a pram carrying her child, before leaving the store without paying and getting into her car.

He pieced together the woman’s identity by scouring resale websites, deciphering her car's personalised number plate, and eventually finding her Facebook profile.

Following his discovery, Charlie’s detective exploits have been covered by BBC News, Radio 4, Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Daily Mail.

Charlie took up the story for GTN Xtra: “We spotted the large Jellycat Hedgehog was missing from our display, checked our sales records and saw that it hadn’t gone through the tills. We checked the CCTV and saw this lady with the pushchair who not only took the hedgehog but at least eight other items at the same time. We were able to follow her around the shop and track her back to her car which had a private numberplate which more or less spelled out her name.

“That evening we had a look through various reselling sites and found the hedgehog for sale on Vinted on an account belonging to the husband of the lady on the CCTV. You could see in her Facebook profile that matched the private numberplate on the car she was driving. You could also tell by her photos on Facebook that it was more or less the same person.

“At the same time I shared the video on various garden centre Whatsapp groups and Chris the TPO from Tates of Sussex gave me a call. He said he had run the footage through facial recognition software which cross referenced with some footage from Blue Diamond at Newbury.  And he was able to confirm to me that she was known to Blue Diamond for doing the same thing and that it was indeed the same person.

“I also filed all the evidence with the police. This was a slow and frustrating process because you just send things off and never really hear anything back – still haven’t really, although I did get a short email on the day the BBC contacted them!

“I received a call from Chris at Tates saying that he was working with the BBC on an article about shoplifting and they were interested in talking to me about it. They came down and filmed last week, and it was broadcast on Thursday.

“The response has been amazing with lots of messages of support through our social media and it is great to be able to raise the profile of the problem that not only affects garden centres but also the wider retail community. I think it also demonstrates the power of what can be done with something as simple as sharing information with other garden centres.

“So far we have appeared on BBC News, Radio 4, Daily Telegraph, The Independent and the Daily Mail.”

Dorset Police told the BBC it has reviewed the CCTV footage and further enquiries were ongoing, including liaising with neighbouring forces.  Charlie has since been updated by the police who say the woman has now been arrested.

Coverage of 'Detective Charlie in the news' can be viewed on the Groves' website https://www.grovesnurseries.co.uk/news/577/detective-charlie-in-the-news

CCTV coverage can be viewed on the BBC story https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c7vez9jg809o

As you can see from our photo taken at Groves this week, they have now put all the Jellycats up on a Christmas tree to try to deter thefts.