Fourteen arrested over theft of 480 pushchairs in Northampton

The pushchairs were stolen from the Roadchef services in Northampton, known to many as Rothersthorpe Services

Operation Barric was set up in response to an increase in lorries with canvas sides being attacked at lorry parks and lay-bys across the East Midlands.

Last week, 480 pushchairs were stolen from a lorry while it was parked at Rothersthorpe Services, off junction 15a, near Swan Valley Industrial Estate.

But as part of the police operation, all of them were recovered, and five people were arrested in connection with their theft. Nine others have been arrested during the course of the week for various offences relating to lorry theft.

Jamie Culverhouse, ANPR manager at Northamptonshire Police, said: “Operation Barric was designed to utilise resources from across a number of forces in order to tackle theft from lorries by organised crime groups.

“Last week saw some fantastic results including the 14 arrests made, the 480 recovered pushchairs, six vehicles recovered and a number of suspicious vehicles identified and stopped.

“This is a year-round operation and I look forward to more success in the coming months as we close in on criminals who think targeting these vehicles is an acceptable way to make money.

The operation included officers from Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire.

Officers from across all four forces, including Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) experts, shared information and intelligence, linked crimes to vehicles and tracked suspect vehicles.