Prisons: Shopping the kids

Prisons: Shopping the kids

Simon Hattenstone meets the parents who turn their children over to the police

Susan Taylor says it took her about five minutes to realise the worst of it. She arrived home, opened the door, turned off the alarm and discovered her laptop at the top of the stairs with a cord trailing, and a kitchen chair in the hall. Strange. Her husband's toolbox was in disarray. Susan's heart started to beat faster. She poked her head into the lounge and there were a few DVDs scattered across the carpet. Suitcases had been dumped on the landing. She entered her bedroom. The safe at the bottom of the wardrobe had been sawn out: it had disappeared, along with £50,000 worth of jewellery. All that remained were the screwdrivers, the screws, the saw and the sawdust. The kitchen window had been left open to make it look as if somebody had entered through it. But Susan, 52, wasn't convinced - the window was always locked, the key hidden; any burglar would have had to smash the window.

"I felt sick. I knew it had to be Tom. Only Tom had a key, only Tom knew the code of the alarm, only Tom knew there was a safe in the wardrobe and only Tom knew what was in it."

She tried calling her son, Tom, 19. No answer. She then called the police. "We had to have the police involved for insurance purposes. When they arrived, they gave me a bit of an old-fashioned look and said, 'Person who knew the alarm and had a key?' and I said, 'Yeah, well, I think it's my son'".