Police 'not responsible' for helping America's Got Talent star track down stolen luggage after thieves strike outside London station
Country singer Steve Ray Ladson said he is 'heartbroken' after thieves stole his luggage, including a laptop loaded with ‘twenty years worth’ of original music.
An America’s Got Talent star who flagged down police after thieves struck outside St Pancras Station has claimed the force said they are ‘not responsible’ for helping retrieve his possessions - despite providing their precise location.
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Country singer Steve Ray Ladson had returned to London on the Eurostar on Sunday night after performing in Paris, with the star waiting for an Uber outside the busy train station when opportunist thieves pounced.
Arriving into London at around 10pm, the country singer describes how “in a matter of 25 or 30 seconds, maybe not even that… my bag had been rolled away” by a stranger who stopped to chat.
However, Mr Ladson’s suitcase contained more than just everyday clothes, with his custom America's Got Talent cowboy boots and his laptop loaded with ‘twenty years worth’ of original music among his lost belongings.
Read more: How I saw police smash Britain's biggest phone theft gang
“It’s heartbreaking,” Mr Ladson told LBC, revealing how he followed the thieves by tracking his laptop and iPad - which were stored inside the bags - using Apple’s FindMyPhone app.
Suspecting the luggage was still nearby and desperate to be reunited with the sentimental items, the singer attempted to flag down officers, to no avail.
Dashcam footage exclusively shared with LBC shows a group of men standing on the side of the road holding what appears to be the television star’s black suitcase and duffel bag.
The musician, who is about to embark on the final leg of his European tour, followed the bag to three separate locations - but on each occasion, the police failed to show up or arrived too late.
“I physically saw [the luggage] three times, you know, with my own eyes,” he said. “But I didn’t want to get stabbed or hurt.”
The singer is now appealing to the public for help finding the bag and expressed concern over the lack of officers patrolling London’s streets.
He told LBC that having to call 999 slowed down the process of finding the thieves since they were unlikely to stay in the same place for the time required to share the necessary details with a dispatcher and wait for officers to arrive.
The country star’s manager Anastasia Myer agreed, saying, “It was frustrating because we had the exact location. We could have got it very easily if the police had been able to help at the moment.”
She called the police immediately after the theft but felt as though the matter was being dismissed by a dispatcher.
“I called 999, who told me if it's not life or death then I had to call back tomorrow morning,” she said.
“It just so happened that I saw a police car driving past as well. So I flagged them down, went over to the window and I said, ‘Listen, we have the location. We've had our items stolen.’
“They said, ‘Sorry, we're not responsible for that. Call the Met Police.’ They said they were just responsible for British Transport.”
But Ms Myer told LBC that they could not find any police officers in the area.
The duo then followed the bags to two other locations, where they again saw Mr Ladson’s luggage and a group of men.
“We went to three separate locations which we tracked on the tracking device and had actually seen the suitcase with the gang of people that had stolen it,” she said.
“At each point I had called the police and given them the location, but they didn't come until the final location, by which time it was too late and they had deactivated the tracking device.”
The musician said he has lost countless recordings and files, including parts of an upcoming collaboration with country music icon Billy Ray Cyrus, calling the experience “heartbreaking.”
The star shot to notoriety in the States after receiving the 'golden buzzer' from singer Sofia Vergara, for his performance on the show which wrapped filming last month.
He made it to the end of the competition, finishing as runner-up, and caught the eye of music mogul Simon Cowell, who called the country singer’s original song “Back of my Truck” a ‘guaranteed hit’ during his audition.
A spokesperson for the Met said: “Police were called at 23.58hrs on Sunday, 12 October to reports of luggage stolen outside St Pancras Train Station in King’s Cross.
“The victim tracked the suspect on his phone and believed he had located him on Finchley Road, Belsize, at which point he called the police.
“Officers attended the scene. They spoke to the victim and carried out a thorough search for the suspect but were unable to trace him.
“No arrests have been made and enquiries continue. If you have any information that could help police, please contact 101 quoting CAD 7499/12Oct.”
British Transport Police told LBC: "It would be inappropriate to comment on another forces investigation."