is Shoplifting now normal?

[uplandrd2020]

.

[Huggers]

I saw Marks and Spencers manager give chase to shoplifter across to Northcross Road for quite a distance and retrieve some of the stuff before the person got away.

[Lynne]

An assistant in Sainsbury's told me that the police have (unofficially, I presume) refused to get involved and they have had to demand police action when someone was taking a whole trolley's worth out. So, yes, I think it perfectly possible that one could do all one's shopping at very little,in any, cost.

[redjam]

I saw a guy walk out of M&S with his arms loaded with expensive steaks a few weeks ago - wonder if it was the same guy you saw in Co-Op, OP? (Obviously a carnivore...) The security alarm went off but no one seemed bothered and I didn't see any staff bat an eyelid. I had walked past him by this stage as my brain hadn't quite computed what I'd seen at first!

V depressing if no one is even trying to stop them. I'd have more sympathy with a shoplifter if they were nicking stuff out of genuine need but this was clearly someone stealing high-price items to sell on.

[dbboy]

Saw chase being given by Sainsbury's staff at DKH, someone making off with food from the deli, think it was a couple of teenage girls.

[binkylilyput]

Yep same- guy last week emptied the meat aisle in M&S on Lordship into his bag and walked out

[se22cat]

Saw a geezer walk in to M&S on LL last week, fill his bomber jacket up with prime cuts and a chicken then put on a sudden burst of speed and was out of there.

There was no staff at any of the checkouts so told a member of staff who, weirdly asked us to tell the manager about it, not sure why they couldn't do it! He just walked over to the exit, saw the guy long gone, shrugged his shoulders and went back to dressing the shelves.

Have seen the really nasty security guards in Sainsburys grill obviously innocent people and demand they open their handbags etc even after they stopped themselves immediately after something set the door alarm off. But when the usual crowd of freeloading kids come in for a tour of the aisles, eating and drinking to their hearts content, nothing is done.

[JohnL]

Yet I once put my card pin in wrong three times and it declined - the lady shouted "we've got one here" and I had to pay at the customer services till. Everyone thought I was the big boss of shop theft.

I won't say where :)

[Nigello]

Steaks and fizz (maybe even champagne) into a big Sainsbo's bag at M and S on LL. I saw it, decided to not intervene but tell the nearest member of staff, by which time the alarm had gone off. An M and S staff member told me that someone sitting outside has been known to ring the perpetrator to tell them when the coast is clearest.

[uncleglen]

I saw a couple of people detained in a shopping mall store back room and the cops were there...the staff had left the door open and the 2 people looked very sheepish....maybe they are doing what they did in the 2011 riots and just protecting the department stores....

[Jules-and-Boo]

Where there is lack of morals, tempatation and low risk, what do you think people will do?

I know shops where staff have been told not to interfere as that's what security guards are for.

Really, I wouldn't want to, if I worked in a shop - I don't know what I would be confronting and if it would be a threat to my safety.

[malumbu]

This thread felt a bit reactionary in its title and early comments but in the spirit of a constructive debate - I expect that we have had shop lifting ever since we have had shops, damnare scelestos, and would expect that with more sophisticated means for detection that apprehensions/prosecutions were higher. I've seen pictures of shoplifters taken from CCTV on a shop window.

Is shoplifting on the increase of is this something that is simply cyclic? I'd be more worried about police inactivity, which is a bigger picture, although the big stores can afford to do private prosecutions.

The values of a civil society should mean that all forms of theft and 'bad' behaviour should be discouraged either through upbringing or intervention. I'm more angry about stuff that I think endangers me and others including driver behaviour. As with theft it can be the lack of likely prosecution that encourages many in society to do this.

Remaining on the subject of civil society, do any of us as citizens challenge the incidents above?

[Earl Aelfheah]

I do worry about the lack of police. The riots exposed how thing the 'thin blue line' really is and there are a lot less police now, where there to be a replay of what happened then.

[se22cat]

You are more likely to See a red squirrel than a beat cop in ED these days, sadly. I think we should get a reduction in our council tax as we effectively have no police service that we pay for.

[Sue]

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> Remaining on the subject of civil society, do any

> of us as citizens challenge the incidents above?

Sadly, I don't even challenge people who drop litter these days, unless they look particularly harmless.

It's a matter of self preservation, frankly. If somebody steals, you don't know what else they might do.

ETA: I would however inform a security guard or staff member if I saw somebody shoplifting.

[uncleglen]

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> This thread felt a bit reactionary in its title

> and early comments but in the spirit of a

> constructive debate - I expect that we have had

> shop lifting ever since we have had shops, damnare

> scelestos, and would expect that with more

> sophisticated means for detection that

> apprehensions/prosecutions were higher. I've seen

> pictures of shoplifters taken from CCTV on a shop

> window.

>

> Is shoplifting on the increase of is this

> something that is simply cyclic? I'd be more

> worried about police inactivity, which is a bigger

> picture, although the big stores can afford to do

> private prosecutions.

>

> The values of a civil society should mean that all

> forms of theft and 'bad' behaviour should be

> discouraged either through upbringing or

> intervention. I'm more angry about stuff that I

> think endangers me and others including driver

> behaviour. As with theft it can be the lack of

> likely prosecution that encourages many in society

> to do this.

>

> Remaining on the subject of civil society, do any

> of us as citizens challenge the incidents above?

I was in Sainsburys Forest Hill about 20 years ago and a woman was eating grapes from the display for much longer than a taster... and she was also feeding her 5ish year old with the grapes... I told the nearest assistant and he went and spoke to her...she then came up to me and started ranting about minding my own business- (how thick can people get)...AND she was teaching her little boy that stealing is ok

[malumbu]

Yes in deed mothers and their children. all thieves. Should be a sign on the door limiting their numbers. He without sin cast the first stone. I am sure that I have eaten the odd grape in a supermarket. We used to go to car scrap yards and fill our pockets with odds and sods (which i am sure was the done thing). And as for the amount of strawberries I ate as a kid when we did PYO. I'll give myself into the nearest police station now. I've also reused postage stamps that weren't franked..... And i work for the toilet paper and light bulb factory....

[Feij?o]

Yes, it's becoming normal, sadly. I witnessed a guy in Co-op stuffing his backpack with steaks and running away. He didn't even bother to hide, it was right in front of me and other shoppers.

I work for an educational institution south of the river and the amount of shoplifting going on is just insane.

[cn150]

Apparently someone leaned over the counter at WR, looking like they might swipe something, but were then challenged by the butcher and left sheepishly.

[Alan Medic]

I'm sure all the shoplifting will cease when the food supplies start running out and the army are called in to protect the stores.

[lavender27]

cn150 Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Apparently someone leaned over the counter at WR,

> looking like they might swipe something, but were

> then challenged by the butcher and left

> sheepishly.

Were they asking for 'lean back bacon'

[Sue]

Feij?o Wrote:

--------------------------------------------.

> I work for an educational institution south of the

> river and the amount of shoplifting going on is

> just insane.

Sorry don't see the connection.

Do you mean the students are shoplifting? How do you know?

[Feij?o]

Both, I am a security manager.

[Sue]

Feij?o Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Both, I am a security manager.

But how do you know the students are shoplifting? I don't see the connection with being a security manager at an educational institution?

[uncleglen]

malumbu Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Yes in deed mothers and their children. all

> thieves. Should be a sign on the door limiting

> their numbers. He without sin cast the first

> stone. I am sure that I have eaten the odd grape

> in a supermarket. We used to go to car scrap

> yards and fill our pockets with odds and sods

> (which i am sure was the done thing). And as for

> the amount of strawberries I ate as a kid when we

> did PYO. I'll give myself into the nearest police

> station now. I've also reused postage stamps that

> weren't franked..... And i work for the toilet

> paper and light bulb factory....

If you had actually read what I posted it said...'eating grapes from the display for much longer than a taster...' another word of warning...make sure that any open fruit you buy is well- washed before you eat it...I know for a fact that hepatitis is rife in south london