SURREY — April 12, 2025 A 50-year-old history teacher has described her arrest and seven-hour detention after confiscating her daughters’ iPads, claiming the police overreacted to the situation.
Vanessa Brown, from Surrey, was arrested on March 26 after she claimed to have stolen the devices, which were traced to her mother’s home in Cobham.
Brown said she had taken the iPads to encourage her teenage daughters to focus on their schoolwork, but the devices were later tracked to her mother’s address.
Police arrived at the location and arrested her on suspicion of theft. She was taken to Staines police station, where she was searched, had her fingerprints and custody photos taken, and was held in a cell for several hours.
She was later released on bail with strict conditions barring her from speaking to anyone involved in the investigation, including her daughters. Police also visited her children’s school and pulled her daughter out of class to address the matter.
Speaking to LBC, Brown expressed her distress over how she handled the incident. “It was just a complete overreaction. It was thoroughly unprofessional,” she said. They were speaking to my mother, who is in her 80s, like she was a criminal.”
Police confirmed in a statement that the iPads were located following a search using post-arrest powers. “A 50-year-old woman from Cobham was arrested on suspicion of theft. The iPads were recovered, and she was released on conditional bail,” the statement said.
Further investigations revealed that the iPads belonged to Brown’s daughters, and she had the right to confiscate them. Brown, a mother of two, criticized the police’s response, pointing out the quick turnaround in her arrest while violent crimes and thefts in her neighborhood often went unaddressed for days.
