PC Russell was sent to Pick-a-Snip Supermarket when manager Mr. Snape apprehended Ena Sharples when she tried to leave the store having not paid for two tins of salmon at the store in May 1966. Russell conducted the affair in a professional manner, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Ena's complaints that Snape was making an example of her in a crackdown on shoplifting. After taking Ena's statement, Russell drove her and Minnie Caldwell home to 5 Coronation Street where he searched her bedroom and the Mission.