Three in the cells following early morning pursuit

Three men have been arrested following a burglary which occurred in Whitby in the early hours of this morning.

At 02.07am today (Monday 19 August 2024) we received a report stating that a sledgehammer was being used to smash the windows at Whitby Jet Shop on Church Street. 

At 2.11am our first officers arrived at the scene, but the suspects had already fled. The quick thinking member of the public passed on the details of a vehicle which was believed to be involved to our Force Control Room. 

Officers from Cleveland Police joined our Specialist Operations Unit to search for the suspect vehicle. We caught up with it on the A171 heading towards Middlesborough when it immediately attempted to evade us by reaching high speeds. During the pursuit our officers observed a sledgehammer been discarded from the vehicle before we stung it and boxed it in with three police vehicles.

Three men in their 40s were arrested and they currently remain in police custody.

A police cordon remained in place this morning on Church Street in Whitby to allow forensic examination work to take place.

Our area commander for Scarborough and Ryedale, Superintendent Rachel Wood said: “I would like to thank the member of the public who provided the information to our Force Control Room to allow us to swiftly track down this vehicle.

“It was a great example of teamwork from two different forces who were pivotal in securing the arrests of three individuals.

“ There are no borders, and we will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of cross border crime and travelling criminality.”