Shoplifting

Sadly this has always happened!
I worked as a store detective in the very early 80's, I lasted for roughly 11 months.
I was spat at, assaulted 4 times and threatened virtually weekly...never by the 'professional thieves', who seemed to view it as part of the job! It was always the youngsters or on the occasion of spitting, a very well dressed, well spoken mature lady in her 50's.
In my area the Police don't attend any more and it's all left to the stores....easy for the big companies to afford it but smaller businesses?!!

You can't accuse anybody of shoplifting until they leave the premises without paying. For all you know, the alleged thief might have been putting things in a bag to carry to the till to pay for the goods.
It is no surprise that on the continent, you often have to leave bags in a locker before you shop. It stops people from doing such large scale theft but I can't imagine anybody in this country doing something unpopular.
Sadly, nowadays in some areas, even Security often avoid doing anything to stop thieves as they don't know what will ensue if someone is armed with a knife and often the police will not act. In fact, the police very often won't attend at all and the most security can do is ban known offenders.

Many years,ago I was in the glass and China dept of a biggish store when I saw a young man taking cut glass dishes and putting them in a pocket in his coat. He saw me looking at him, smiled and gestured shush. That was it, how dare he make me complicit in his thieving. No store assistant in sight. I said in a very loud voice 'if you don't put that back immediately I'm going to shout at the top of my voice'. He did put it back and exited the shop. My husband was cross with me for doing it butI just acted on instinct and fury.

Do not challenge the thief - but immediately report to staff - if you intervene you may be hurt.

I think I would have shouted out very loudly-' Look he is shoplifting!!! Maybe the store detective would have caught him.
I used to work in an office overlooking the rear of a large department store & it was practically a daily event to see someone come racing out of the door followed by security guards. They very rarely caught them but if they did we cheered out of the window. Broke the day up a bit anyway.

Very sadly this is not an uncommon event nor is it a modern phenomenon. About 45 years ago my husband was a manger of a small town supermarket and he got extremely badly beaten up when trying to stop a woman stealing a bag of sugar from the shop. When she was eventually stopped by the police and subsequently arrested she was found to have a bag full of stolen goods.

A year or two later whilst working in another store he witnessed an older chap steal a frozen item and the police were called. It transpired that this chap had travelled into the city to visit his wife who was in prison but he didn’t have the fare to get back home nor could he afford to buy himself anything to eat. The police took him off to the police station, fed him and gave him a travel warrant to get back home.

Just yesterday I was in a charity shop and a man with his son in a pushchair was idling waiting for his wife to choose clothes. The child was crying so the man picked up a little car and gave it to him. I kept waiting for him to tell the lady on the till but no, he’d removed the ticket and the car was tucked into the pram. I know it was only a small item but in a charity shop?

I tried to tell the lady on the till but she couldn’t tell what I was saying because of my mask and she had a VERY loud voice. She kept saying what, what, so I tried to shush her, removed my mask and tried to sort of whisper loudly! Eventually she understood and said it was alright, she knew, she kept her eyes on everyone. I was so embarrassed though, I should have minded my own business.

If organizations are themselves not prepared to take action, they surely can't expect the general public to do so. It seems shoplifting is another thing that's become 'endemic' in today's society.

I’ve worked in retail. Larger brand stores just don’t care about shoplifting anymore and very rarely call the police. It doesn’t get prosecuted either. The loss to these stores are already factored in to their costs etc so as a consumer we pay for any theft and hence the owners don’t care. Different story for small independent shops of course.

I used to work in a Coop supermarket and witnessed shop lifting and you might not believe this but it was done by two old ladies, One said to the other ' If you want it take it.' I reported it to the manager, whilst they stood outside talking. He could have apprehended them. He was such a kind man, perhaps he was frightened they would hit him with their walking sticks, as he would't do anything.

You did exactly the right thing. It's shocking to see someone robbing goods and even worse, getting away with it. All you can do is tell a member of staff and let them deal with it as they see fit. When I worked in a local newsagents many years ago I was warned by the police never to try and tackle a shoplifter. I'd see people pretending to be browsing and then leave with magazines and cards stuffed up their jackets. Because we'd been warned not to tackle them for fear of assault they knew they could carry on thieving without fear of recrimination but it made me wonder, what's the point in having a business and trying to make a living when people can come in and just help themselves to your merchandise without fear of recrimination? I have to add 99.9% of our customers were lovely, law abiding citizens and many of them would even tell you if they thought they'd been undercharged but it made me so angry that these few shoplifters thought they had the right to rob us of the means of our livelihood like that and never had to face up to their crimes.

I had a summer job in BHS in the early 70s. If the staff spotted a shoplifter we were instructed to ring the manual bell on top of the till 3 times and security and floor supervisor would chase after the culprit.

If they were caught the staff member who rang the bell received £20 and a half day off. So, there was a big incentive for staff to be on the alert.

I'm afraid I wouldn't do anything to antagonise the thief or that would let him recognise me. He may be local and 'look out' for you later on. Most theft of this kind will be for drug money and ,sadly, there is no 'normal' behaviour from someone needing a fix. Addiction is ruthless and cunning and you would put yourself at risk. The theft of food is something different and I must say I wouldn't report that. Sad if people are reduced to stealing food. Mind you I think steak etc gets a good price and could be sold for a fix.

I have worked in shops since I left school and it has happened in every one of them, shoes, food and gifts. People just take anything that they can use or sell on and it drives me mad. Shop assistants are on usually the minimum wage, hours are rubbish and they take a lot of abuse at times from the public. Standing getting less than £9 an hour when a scumbag comes in and takes aftershave probably costing around £50 makes my blood boil.
I managed a shoe shop and I would find old pairs of shoes hidden where people came in tried on new ones and just walked out in them. A guy in the food store threw a £1 at me for an item while hiding a £5 cheese in his other hand behind his back. I said that £6 please because the cheese in your other hand is £5. He just threw the cheese at me and walked out. Cheese!
It goes on all the time and it's normally a member of the public that inform the assistant as they aren't enough staff usually on to keep an eye out for them. You did right not challenging him as he could of caused you it your GD harm annsixty, informing the staff is the best way.

I walked out of Boots once with two unpaid for toothbrushes. I was holding them in front of me like ceremonial swords. I'd gone in for something else, picked up the toothbrushes and then they didn't have what I'd gone in for so left. Got half way down the High St before I realised. Rushed back in such a state, the staff on the tills were killing themselves laughing but as I explained my husband was the duty inspector that day at the local police station. Imagine his face if I'd been taken in for shoplifting. Still makes me shudder.

I suppose one could report directly to the police if the shop workers have given up. At least you can get the crime recorded and eventually if there are over a certain number of crimes recorded and not investigated there will be problems for the unit. Shops not bothering to report is just skewing the real crime figures which isn't helpful.

Once when I was going into Waitrose a young man was being detained by a male member of staff who said politely "Excuse me sir, but have you paid for your items?" Unfortunately I did not stand and stare but passed them by as the young man was saying yes, but he was then asked to produce his receipt. I wish I had waited to see what happened next.

there should be more staff on the sales floor . me i would have shouted at the man oi what do you think you are doing ?but at 84 i would be wary ,as he might have got violent ..its up to them to catch shoplifters .not you ....

It seems organisations can’t be bothered these days. I reported fraudulent use of a deceased person’s bank card and all the banks would say is that they could do nothing unless it was reported by the perpetrators!

There is a programme on tv about shoplifting in a large shopping precinct. Even with guards around plenty of people try it, some with very ingenious methods, and working in teams. I would never risk confronting a shoplifter though. Many are drug addicts, and desperate for money.
I had an amusing experience on our local open-air market, many years ago. A woman blatantly took several dresses, complete with hangars, off a rail at the side of a stall. She calmly folded them up and put them in the basket tray under her pram, then went across to queue at the cooked meat stall.
I told the stallholder what had happened, and pointed the woman out. While the woman was being served,with her meat, she retrieved the dresses and put them back on the rail. The shoplifter bent down to put her purchases under the pram, and realised that her ill-gotten gains had disappeared.

It was so funny to see her staring around, obviously thinking, “Which thieving b*****d has pinched my dresses?”

I used to work in a well known now defunct store. A woman came in with a very large duvet box as if she had just bought it. She had cut a post box slit in the side and went happily around the shop pushing stuff through the letter box. I alerted the store detective and she was stopped as she got to the exit. The box was obviously much heavier than when she arrived. Some people!

Not quite the same but once in a Boots I was choosing a deodorant when a young woman stood near to me and blatently opened a deod swished it under her arms and walked off, I did mention it to a staff member who said it was not unusual, I always pick one from the back now.

Shoplifters often do this to order, not just for themselves, and sell these items on to earn money (The aftershave might have been for his own father?) It's just a way of life to them. I would stand well clear and report it to the staff. A friend of mine who used to be in the police, and became a store detective told me that a group of detectives operated in the town centre and worked together so that they could identify known shoplifters as soon as they entered the first store. But these days, few stores employ store detectives or even bother with proper CCTV - they just put stolen items down as "shrinkage" and enter it as a loss on their accounts - they can claim these things against profits for tax purposes. It's up to shops to tackle this, not the customers (galling though it is to witness it).

I work at a well known bakers and we often have shoplifters walking in and grabbing a sandwich or box of doughnuts and walk out again. Often it is the same people who know that even if they are caught, they will not be persecuted. We would never expect other customers to intervene as we have known some shoplifters to become abusive when challenged.
You informed the sales assistant and that is all you could be expected to do.

An assistant in Aldi's store told me about a group of men who pulled up in a van outside, filled their trolley with spirits and walked back to their van, and were not even apprehended by the store guard. She said that was the rule and would be too dangerous to intervene. I was shocked that anyone would have the audacity to do that. What is the world coming to?