National Association of Retired Police Officers (NARPO) London Branch

baby blues & twos Geoffrey Adams (pictured) a former DCI who served at SO4, DP, XD, KB, KP, HA, HD, CO, RD, RH & RW was asked recently by an American acquaintance what he thought he had contributed during long years in the Police Service. He says he found that a difficult question to answer but, in response, he gave the following account of what he believed was a good example. ***** When E/T Duty Inspector at Woolwich one morning in 1981 a call came out on that a new born baby was missing from the long since demolished Woolwich Hospital for Mothers and Babies. When I arrived PC Brian Robbins, driving the local panda car, was on scene talking to the ward matron when one of her nurses approached me and told us that she had a young expectant mother in a side room with "something to tell ". What she told us was that by coincidence she had seen a former neighbour in the hospital grounds that very morning. Our expectant ‘informant’ went on to reveal that the said former neighbour had previously declared herself to be with child when in fact this had proved not to be true. Might she have taken the baby? Upon feeding this information back to Woolwich, the communications officer on duty, WPC Vicarage, contacted the all local minicab firms in Woolwich and was able to establish at that very moment, a cab with a young woman, a 7 year old child and a very young baby on board was en route from Woolwich to Eltham. By chance the minicab was spotted just as it passed Shooters Hill (RH) and was duly stopped by a number of local officers. When I arrived on scene we found a holdall on the cab seat containing a blond wig and a ward orderly’s nylon housecoat, identical to those used in the hospital. We arrested the young woman for child stealing and, rather surprisingly, her response was “Oh, have I got the wrong one?” In what must go down as one of the fastest ‘clear-ups’ in my service, the total time between the call coming out to us and the baby's recovery to the mother, was less than 45 minutes. In those days we didn’t worry too much about CO Press Office and the local papers; we thought the baby’s mother had suffered enough; a job well done was satisfaction enough! When I arrived back at Woolwich with my prisoner and her 7 year old, DCI Mike Vernol was walking across the station yard as I opened the Duty Officer's car door with my prisoner; his comment was a rather sarcastic. "What's she in for, begging?"  “No," I said very proudly  “I’ve arrested her for child stealing."  The look on Mike’s face was a picture that to this day I have never forgotten. Submitted 12^th June 2011 geoffreyadams800@btinternet.com ***** © Copyright NARPO (London Branch), All rights reserved.