"I'm not a hero" says specials co-ordinator who stopped shoplifters in Gnosall

We are launching a mini-series of our podcast, The Beat, focusing on and celebrating the work of the specials constabulary in our force.

Our team of volunteer officers balance their family life and full-time jobs with their duties in the force, and are an invaluable asset in our fight against all types of crime and in protecting our communities.

For the first episode of the series, we sat down with Sue Bohanan, who, having spent over three decades in the specials constabulary, now serves as our specials co-ordinator.

During the podcast, Sue recounts the remarkable story of how she used her expertise, intuition and bravery to single-handedly stop three shoplifters from making their escape, after they attempted to steal from her local store.

She told us: "It was the 6 December last year. I was on the way to my local Co-op in Gnosall to get my paper as I normally do. As I got towards a small roundabout near the shop, a car pulled up alongside. It parked in quite an unusual spot and straight away I thought 'that's a bit strange'. There were also three men outside the car, but I didn't think any more of it.

"So I went into the shop, got my paper, and as I went to the counter, these three men, in their mid-30s, came barging in. They went to the alcohol aisle and then started taking spirits from the shelf and putting them in a bag for life.

"I know that we'd had a couple of raids on the Co-op before and that the staff can't challenge them.

"I was really angry, because I thought 'How dare you do that to a shop in the local community?' So I went to the door and I thought 'I'll challenge them'.

"They resisted, but I thought I'd better let them go, because there was three of them and I'd given them a bit of a challenge. Besides, I think I'd put them off what they were doing.

"They left the store and shot across the road. I knew where their car was, so I shot off after them. They didn't have time to get into the car, so they went off onto the playing fields. I think they thought that I was going to go chasing after them, but I told the lady from the shop to stay with the car, whilst I walked up to the bank and kept pushing them right up the fields. 

"They could see me, but the further I was pushing them, the less they knew where they were and once they'd got to the top of the field, I ran back towards the car.

"Whilst on the way back, I phoned our force control room and said to the dispatcher, 'Look, we've just had a raid on the Co-op. I've got the men here, they've gone out across the fields and I think we probably need the patrol out here. 

"As the patrol was on its way, I ran back to the car, as I knew that one of them would be coming back, seeing as it was literally their only form of transport. 

"When I got to the car, I said to the lady, 'You take the back and I'll take the front'. She said 'What?', so I said, 'Let the tyres down on the car. She said 'Can we do that?', to which I replied, 'We sure can.'

"So we start to let the tyres down and even put the cap back on for them. But whilst we were there, we heard the car flicking and then the alarm went off, so I knew that one of the males was around there somewhere.

"I saw him in the field, and he then comes to the car and pretends that he'd been looking for his aunty's dog.

"He then gets into the car and says 'Right, I'm going now.' I said 'Oh no you're not.' 

"He asked why. I said ''Cause you've got flat tyres.'

"I knew the patrols weren't far away, so I decided to stand against the car door, so he couldn't get out. As the patrols came over, I waved to them.

"They came down and got him, and the rest is history."

The man that she managed to stop, a 43-year-old, from Wolverhampton, was charged a total of £435 at North Staffordshire Magistrates Court, after pleading guilty to theft from a shop.

However, Sue, who, by her own admission, doesn't take praise very easily, remains keen to shy away from taking too much of the credit for what happened.

She said: "Since then, we don't seem to have had any further raids on the Co-op, so I do think to myself, 'Yes, stopped you', but it wasn't for my own self-gratification.

"At the time, I was excited, not for me, but for the Co-op, for all the ladies in there, because I know them really well. Also, for the fact that these people were just being so brazen and thought that they could walk into a local shop that's very important to the local community and think it's their right to take stuff without paying.

"I was just there as a member of the public, with no form of protection, but that's why I'm very fortunate with the training, like unarmed combat, that I've done.

"All I've done is challenged these people and said 'No, you can't do that'. I'm not anything fantastic.

"I'm not a hero."

Chief Constable Chris Noble said: "Sue is being very modest, and although that's just how she is, I'm not sure that there are many people, who, even if they had the skills and the physical presence, would make the choice to get involved.

"As a member of the public, that is absolutely appropriate, but I think that once you're a part of the police family, there is that additional responsibility to take crime personally, to protect our communities and to make sure there are consequences for people who do commit offences.

"But it still takes bravery, as well as instinctive reaction, to do what Sue did. She is someone who is invested in day-to-day policing, is clearly very committed to her local community and has a real sense of justice at her core as well."

On the specials constabulary more broadly, he added: "Our special officers are very much on the frontline of policing nationwide.

"Their invaluable work puts us in a position that allows us to get stronger, more proactive and to take crime that happens in all of our cities, towns and villages seriously and personally.

"We are starting to get back to a place now where people know their patch and take it personally, and we are getting much stronger around arrests, stop and search and intervening.

"In 2024, one of my key ambitions is to think again about how we can support our specials even more. This is from the skills we give them to how we can bring more into the organisation and even allowing them more influence. 

"They provide an unsung contribution on and off-duty and on behalf of the whole of the force, I cannot thank Sue and the rest of the specials enough for the time and energy that they continue to dedicate to their communities."

To hear more about Sue's life and career as a special, listen to Part One of her episode of The Beat: Episode 16 - Specials Mini-Series – Sue Bohanan (part one) (buzzsprout.com)

Part Two will be released next Monday (26 February).