Could have stopped a shoplifting? WWGDD?

Soldato
Joined
7 Nov 2009
Posts
19,879
Location
Glasgow
i was walking out of Morrison’s today when a gentleman came bundling down the aisle and pushed through a few people with a full basket full of groceries. He was beside me at the alarmed gates and I probably could have intervened and stopped him. Perhaps tripped him up or pushed him. I did nothing.

What would you have done and why?

Personally for an instance of shop theft and no crime against a person I don’t want to get injured, stabbed, etc. Any have a go heroes here?
 
It's easy to look back afterwards when you have the time and think about what you might have/could have done, but i'd probably not have done much more than stepped into his way, IF I even registered what was happening.
I certainly wouldn't tackle someone, and probably wouldn't try to trip them or anything.
 
If you tripped him up you'd probably get attacked by the shoplifter then arrested by the police for assaulting him.
 
Personally for an instance of shop theft and no crime against a person I don’t want to get injured, stabbed, etc. Any have a go heroes here?
Just not worth the chance of getting injured over what would be worth nothing more then a tiny bit of pocket change to a supermarket company..
 
The correct GD response would be to go to the book section, read up on boxing stances and also follow them home to see if they have a frontdoor which is letterbox enabled :D
 
Stopped one just before Christmas. Bloke filled his trolley with bottles of spirits and tried to barge out. Tripped him up and 3 security guards immediately piled on followed by a PCSO.
 
I wouldn't put my neck out for a big supermarket chain like Morrison's, I'd probably be more likely to do something (within reason) if it was a smaller business that would actually suffer due to shoplifting.
 
He would get caught, it's all on camera so I wouldn't have done a thing.

The reality is, that he probably wouldn't be caught unless they were prolific. There's no guarantee the shop would even report it. The police's response to these sorts of crime is pretty poor, but if it's a call between a shoplifting or someone being a victim of violence, then I think the priorities are clear.
 
To be honest, its a basket of food. For some people times are hard these days. I wouldn't stop him.

If he was running towards the exit with a £1000+ TV then I might stick my foot out.
 
Most likely the same realisitically. I saw a guy shoving kgs of meat into his jacket at the local Co-op, went over to tell the cashier and their shop layout is so stupid (meat next to the entrance, tills via a maze) that by the time I'd done that he was 100m down the road.
 
The reality is, that he probably wouldn't be caught unless they were prolific. There's no guarantee the shop would even report it. The police's response to these sorts of crime is pretty poor, but if it's a call between a shoplifting or someone being a victim of violence, then I think the priorities are clear.

Not up in the Northeast UK they don't they release the footage to see if anyone can identify them then they put out a warrant for their arrest for shop lifting. :) Indeed there are priorities.
 
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