Drama at the Co-op

icanhandthemback Build bigger prisons then. What's the alternative? Let crime become the norm.

breeze, yes my son who wanted to be a policeman for all the right reasons gets so frustrated by the enormous amount of frankly unnecessary paperwork. A simple theft from a shop arrest can see an officer taken off the streets for many hours completing the formalities. The numbers are far too low, evidenced by single crewing of cars and single foot patrols. How is any officer supposed to manage "incidents" involving several offenders, or even one offender supported by a hostile public on their own? There really aren't enough of them to cover all crimes. The public need to be calling for far greater numbers, and then actually back them in the fight against crime. It would help if CPS prosecuted a few more, and judges handed out harsher sentences. But then we get into over-crowded prisons. We need to decide what we want and then voice it to the powers that be.

Completely agree janipat We have seen an increase in dreadful attacks on single officers in recent times. Poor brave souls that have paid the price trying to protect 'us'.

The 'where do we put them' problem, regarding petty offenders. Find somewhere. Build somewhere. You can't say 'we will let people off because we haven't got room for them'. What kind of example does that show to offenders. And as I said earlier, a very high chance of reoffending if they are not caught and made uncomfortable early on before they move on to worse things.

My father used to tell me about his dog when he was a little boy. This animal became famous for the quantity and variety of presents he used to bring home, e.g. torches, thermos flask and one Sunday morning a large joint of beef which my grandmother, being a sensible Scots woman, decided to cook for Sunday dinner.

Well I guess there could be a 'wing' at Battersea for canine rehabilitation 'serious theft'

I think my spaniel would have ended up there!

Ah, but Breeze, the powers that be would have to raise the taxes to pay for the staff to catch the thieves, try the thieves and house them whilst in the newly built prisons. At the moment, by doing nothing, we still pay for the misdemeanours within our food bills and barely notice it. Of course I don't want the people who do this shoplifting to get away with it. I think it is disgusting that it is almost seen as acceptable but as a society we have to decide how to foil this.
In many continental countries, bags always had to be left in lockers which limits how much people can carry off. Revolving Doors would make it so people couldn't make a quick get away. I am sure there must be ways and means to prevent the crimes rather than cleaning up afterwards.

It’s not just food theft either.
Our local Co-Op was raided a few months ago by armed robbers.
The poor shop assistant was locked in the store cupboard.
They seem to be targeting coop’s all,over the place.

My choir was carol singing in Asda's foyer, some years ago. Suddenly a young man rushed past, clutching two bottles of spirits, with a security guard in hot pursuit. A few minutes later he was hauled back in, minus the drink. I presume that it had been dropped, or thrown away. Throughout the drama we carried on singing about "Peace on Earth. Goodwill to men!". So funny!

As for how to punish the offenders - we still have a set of stocks nearby. Maybe the supermarkets could supply their over-ripe fruit to bombard the offenders with.

We could put them into the pens at Battersea Cats and Dogs Home and feed them through the bars GreenGran.

Over-ripe fruit, not smoke salmon though.

Joke
An 80 year old woman was arrested for shop lifting. When she went before the judge he asked her, 'What did you steal?'
She replied: a can of peaches.
The judge asked her why she had stolen them and she replied that she was hungry.
The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can. She replied 6.
The judge then said, 'I will give you 6 days in jail.'
Before the judge could actually pronounce the punishment the woman's husband spoke up and asked the judge if he could say something.
He said, ' What is it? '
The husband said 'She also stole a bag of rice’ ....

I shouldn't laugh.

And I've just finished reading a whole series of books about convicts deported to Australia for stealing food to feed their younger brothers and sisters …...

We were in Oxford last year and I went into Edinburgh Woolen Mill to buy a sweater. My son came in with me. He saw a man take four cashmere pullovers - with security tags on them - off a rail, examine them casually, and then take off like a rocket for the door and out into the street setting off alarms. My son offered to pursue the man. “No”, she said “And don’t worry about it - it happens all the time!” He was fulminating about it for the whole day.

Joke:
An 80 year old woman was arrested for shop lifting. When she went before the judge he asked her, 'What did you steal?'
She replied: a can of peaches.
The judge asked her why she had stolen them and she replied that she was hungry.
The judge then asked her how many peaches were in the can. She replied 6.
The judge then said, 'I will give you 6 days in jail.'
Before the judge could actually pronounce the punishment the woman's husband spoke up and asked the judge if he could say something.
He said, ' What is it? '
The husband said 'She also stole a tin of peas.'

Oops, sorry. Changed the punchline after I must have already pressed ‘sent’.

Goodness me. I hope I'm never in a sinking ship in a storm with you lot. You would be climbing on my shoulders to get into the lifeboat first. I'm outta here.

Thats interesting about not chasing a thief and Lidl. I was going into my local Lidle where I saw a young woman on the floor outside with three staff standing over her. Its seems she had run out with something, staff chased her and got her on the floor and were waiting for he police. The police had arrived as I left the store and had the young woman on her feet being put in a police car.

What happened to shame, I'd be so embarrassed if I was caught shoplifting on top of thou shalt not steal. There is more to reporting to the police it's also you'd want to know if you were just about to appoint someone as a treasurer of your charity or a shop assistant or accountant. Only this morning I read about an accountant who's embezzled £400000 and another high up person who'd stolen even more from their employer. It's a continuum isn't it .
Just before Christmas I saw someone switch a reduced sticker onto a different gammon joint, could hardly believe it. It took me a moment to process what I'd seen.Th shop was busy and the people went off quickly towards the checkout, A member of staff was too far away to grab so they got away with it. Stupid thing was that it actually was a v small reduction, had they been caught and got a record it would have affected their life so much
I once saw a woman take a roll in deodorant in a shop, couldn't believe what I saw she put some on each armpit, put the lid back and out it back on the shelf. Almost wish she'd nicked it !

DS used to manage an off licence, which as you can imagine had regular break-ins and hold-ups. Sometimes it would take the police the best part of a week to turn up and investigate. And that was some years ago.

A few years ago a 'customer' in my local Coop put his basket of shopping down on the floor in one of the aisles (it was very quiet at the time) and put it all into a carrier bag and walked straight out of the store, leaving the empty basket behind. When I eventually found a member of staff it was too late and little interest was shown.

Similarly I saw a man at a local Sainsbury's put several cans of alcohol inside his anorak and walk out. There was a member of staff quite close but tbh I didn't fancy my chances with this rough-looking man. After he'd left I mentioned it to the staff but apparently it happened all the time.

When an Iceland shop first opened here ,I went in for a look and noticed all the legs of lamb were in what I would call an "overcoat" Well I never.
,with just a part of the leg sticking out.I asked a member of staff what it was for and was told it's an anti theft device,as legs of lamb were the most stolen items in their shops.

notanan2, people who haven't got a lot of money might be tempted
Nah
Knock-off choice cuts still cost more than cheap cuts from an actual shop so why risk eating dodgy meat?

My husband used to work for Asda, and one day saw a young man clutching a bottle of whisky being chased by a security guard. They caught him-he jumped over the car park wall, which had a 12 foot drop the other side!

Some years ago I worked for a very well known high street store that sells clothing and food. One very busy hot summer's day, a woman came into the store, selected a pair of pale cream trousers, pale cream striped blazer and a blouse and took them into the ladies changing room. She was given a tag to show that she had 3 items. After a little while, the woman came out and handed the tag to the assistant and said that she would buy all of the items. At the end of the day, we found a pair of slightly grubby pale cream trousers, a crumpled jacket and a blouse, all obviously well worn and hanging neatly on hangers. Back in the changing rooms, we found the tickets and price tags for the new missing items. Someone clearly just wanted clean fresh clothes that day!

Another common ruse was in the ladies shoe department. You wouldn't believe how many people came in, tried a pair of shoes on, found that they fitted so walked out of the store wearing them. It was a common occurrence to find knackered old shoes kicked under the seats.