8:28am Saturday 17th February 2007
By Alex Ali
WHEN an optician was offered almost £2,000 worth of goods which he suspected were stolen in South Harrow he was not tempted.
Instead he faked a phone call and filmed the would-be seller on his mobile phone as he pretended to negotiate a price for the stolen plasma TV.
But Mehul Madlani, 23, of Harrow, waited 25 minutes for a police car but none arrived, even after he rang twice to tell them that a man was trying to sell him a TV that still had the Currys wrapping and a £1,900 price tag on it.
Mehul said: "The police are always promoting community support and they had that from me and they didn't come, they were clearly stolen goods and I was trying to keep the guy busy.
"I was pretending to make a call but I was filming him with my camera."
Mehul also managed to supply police with the make, model and number plate of the man's car, but still no patrol car turned up.
"They should have sent someone, the incident took place in Netto's car park and South Harrow Police station is just down the road, it felt like I had to push the police to get someone to come", said Mehul.
But Will Goddard a spokesman for Harrow Police said: "At 2.42 pm on Saturday, February 10, Harrow Police received an anonymous call from a member of the public alleging that a man was selling a stolen plasma TV screen in the Netto car park in Northolt Road South Harrow.
"A police vehicle was initially assigned to the scene but following an extensive search of the area using CCTV cameras which proved to be negative, this police vehicle was re-deployed elsewhere.
"The registration number and details of the alleged suspect's vehicle were circulated to all police units but we were not able to locate this vehicle."
And Mr Goddard explained that if Mehul brought his evidence to the police then they could investigate it further.
He added: "Our advice to members of the public is that you should never buy property if you have any suspicion that it might be stolen. If you are offered a deal that sounds too good to be true, that is probably because it is."
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