Shoplifting and shoplifters-the nerve of some of them

[Resident]

There used to be a prolific family of ethnic descent in my town. Had about 12 kids. They'd all walk into the local Asda & the kids would scatter in all directions, clearly as a distraction. Everytime mum/dad were caught lifting security & even police were hit with a barrage of "no english" or "you're racist".

Eventually the store banned them from going in and not long later they disappeared from the town.

 

[Semple]

As long as losses are kept to a manageable level a few degenerates yoinking a handful of items a day is whatever. No one's dying so it's a question of maybe £200 every single day per security role vs the value of theft which can be stopped.

Exactly this.

I remember working at Currys many moons ago, and asking my boss why they didn't hire a security guard rather than have one of the staff stood at the front of the store for all hours.

It basically came down to cost. The cost of hiring two security guards (shop was open 64 hours a week) was probably about 50k a year, versus losses of maybe 10k a year.

 

[Semple]

Still remember to this day guy walking into currys casually picked up a dyson stacked at the front and walked out. No one batted an eyelid was bloomin tempted myself

I remember when the Xbox 360 was launched, we had to put some sort of display up in the porch with loads of empty console boxes to advertise it. It was hilarious the number of empty boxes that got robbed.

 

[EdGey]

True story - In my mischievous youth, I walked into a SPAR and realised to my horror that my favourite "gummy snakes" were out of stock. I approached a member of staff and asked if they had any more, to which she replied yes before promptly re-stocking the shelf just for me. I then stuffed my pockets and did a runner.

Hey I didn't say I was proud of it - but now I'm older I can't help but laugh at the sheer brazenness of my young self.

Anyway I got caught the next time and my mum tore me a new bum hole.

 

[dave28]

people walk out of supermarkets with trolleys full of food and stuff

they know that they cant watch every shopper

i even worked with a woman who said she used to know people who got away with it hundreds of times over many years

 

[R.P.L]

It meant all male staff run to the front of the store because something might happen.

That's a bit sexist

 

[Rroff]

True story - In my mischievous youth, I walked into a SPAR and realised to my horror that my favourite "gummy snakes" were out of stock. I approached a member of staff and asked if they had any more, to which she replied yes before promptly re-stocking the shelf just for me. I then stuffed my pockets and did a runner.

Hey I didn't say I was proud of it - but now I'm older I can't help but laugh at the sheer brazenness of my young self.

Anyway I got caught the next time and my mum tore me a new bum hole.

There was a kid in my year at school who'd raid the local SPAR on his way into school, taking orders from other kids - lots of talk about how it was "covered on insurance", etc. didn't end well but 25 years ago I can't remember specifics now.

 

[lunar]

Last week I was in the Supermarket. I purchased goods costing about £15.
I went to the self-service till and scanned the items. I used my contactless card and requested a receipt. No receipt was given, so I began walking out. Just as I was about to enter my car in the car park, an assistant ran over to me and said I had not paid. I apologised and returned. This time I held the card over the reader Long enough to register a sale.
It was a genuine mistake.
I dislike the idea of having to request a receipt.

 

[firstborn]

Last week I was in the Supermarket. I purchased goods costing about £15.
I went to the self-service till and scanned the items. I used my contactless card and requested a receipt. No receipt was given, so I began walking out. Just as I was about to enter my car in the car park, an assistant ran over to me and said I had not paid. I apologised and returned. This time I held the card over the reader Long enough to register a sale.
It was a genuine mistake.
I dislike the idea of having to request a receipt.

I see that at the self service almost every time I visit the coop, an unpaid shop just sitting there on the screen. Generally assumed it was due to a cautious shoplifter.

 

[arknor]

You lot aren't going to believe this (it's true and you know what they say about truth being stranger than fiction):-
Yesterday a shoplifter entered the co-op, made his way into the kiosk and walked out with a few bottles and didn't pay for them and he came back again today and tried the same thing. I've even seen people just walk into the shop, grab a fridge pack of beer or cider and walk out without paying for them.
Are shoplifters getting brave as they know they're being watched on camera and proper customers who tell the staff that they've suspected a shoplifter?

https://assets.publishing.service.g...file/317719/low_value_shop_theft_guidance.pdf

it's barely worth calling the police and they likely wouldn't bother to come out anyway.


I bought something from the Kiosk of a Tesco a month or so ago.
I usually stand there until the card reader says approved but the person serving me said I could go so whatever....

I go back in the store about 2 weeks later and the guy tells me I didn't get charged the last time there was an error with the card reader....... I should check my bank statement and come back...

pretty sure it's probably against company policy to even bring it up but whatever I'm not a thief and it was only around £18 so I paid it..

kinda weird though cos you know shop lifters walking out with £18 wouldn't even get chased, I've watched people just go around the shop with a basket and then walk out with basket in hand without paying.

no staff try to stop them or anything, it's a store with a security guard on the entrance too... they are literally chocolate fire guards..

they aren't protecting the store, they aren't protecting the staff and they aren't protecting the customers.

may as well be a cardboard cut out of a policeman

 

[Dave85]

I see that at the self service almost every time I visit the coop, an unpaid shop just sitting there on the screen. Generally assumed it was due to a cautious shoplifter.

To be fair the amount of times the self service at our coop local to us mucks up and freezes half the time you end up just taking all to the till as usually no one else on to reset it while serving other customers.

 

[d_brennen]

Last week I was in the Supermarket. I purchased goods costing about £15.
I went to the self-service till and scanned the items. I used my contactless card and requested a receipt. No receipt was given, so I began walking out. Just as I was about to enter my car in the car park, an assistant ran over to me and said I had not paid. I apologised and returned. This time I held the card over the reader Long enough to register a sale.
It was a genuine mistake.
I dislike the idea of having to request a receipt.

Wouldn't have thought that was possible. Don't all self service machines prompt for receipt after payment is successful?

 

[1664kronenbourg]

https://assets.publishing.service.g...file/317719/low_value_shop_theft_guidance.pdf

calling the police and they likely wouldn't bother to come out anyway.

Exactly. But if and when they do turn up, it's usual four hours later (do the real police work on a part time basis as we rarely see them on the streets where they should be and not stuck behind some desk) and if you report an armed seige, they're out in force m with armed police surrounding the area, helecopterss in the air and with police dogs within ten ,minutes.

 

[a1ex2001]

I guess once you've been to prison a few times and get used to it there's little hope or fear left. Some actually want to go back to prison as it's generally am easy life as you get everything done for you.

Says a man who clearly has no experience of a British prison beyond what the daily fail or the express tells him is a holiday camp. Prisons in the UK are grim, not Victorian grim but grim the over crowding is insane and the amount of time spent in a cell is ridiculously high even more so since covid. I doubt many people actively want to go back!

 

[Stu999]

Wouldn't have thought that was possible. Don't all self service machines prompt for receipt after payment is successful?

No, Tesco just prints it as soon as the payment goes through.

Edit - correct my own post - just been to Tesco and they’ve updated the software to ask if you want a receipt.

There was an issue with Tesco a couple of months ago and the self-service tills weren’t working properly, maybe what happened to @lunar and @arknor too. I ‘paid’ contactless and listened for the beeps while packing, as I usually do then started walking out, half thinking I hadn’t gotten a receipt. Luckily my local one is always manned on self-service so the fella let me know and we had a laugh about it as I really paid.

Part of the issue is the tills give you too many messages, e.g. unexpected item in bagging area even though I’ve already paid and I’m just packing up, that you start to pay less and less attention to what they say.

 

[sneakysnail]

Says a man who clearly has no experience of a British prison beyond what the daily fail or the express tells him is a holiday camp. Prisons in the UK are grim, not Victorian grim but grim the over crowding is insane and the amount of time spent in a cell is ridiculously high even more so since covid. I doubt many people actively want to go back!

I'm pretty sure our prisons are of a better standard than most of the world. Prisons in parts of Europe, canada etc are probably better but the rest of the americas, africa, asia, russia are surely much much worse.

I live in Thailand for example. Do you have any idea how much worse prison life is here compared to the UK. Most inmates would legitimately see time in a UK prison as a holiday comparatively.

 

[arknor]

Says a man who clearly has no experience of a British prison beyond what the daily fail or the express tells him is a holiday camp. Prisons in the UK are grim, not Victorian grim but grim the over crowding is insane and the amount of time spent in a cell is ridiculously high even more so since covid. I doubt many people actively want to go back!

what do prisoners have in a cell to occupy their minds?

I've honestly wondered who gets a medical condition diagnosed and treated more easily, a prisoner or a citizen on the outside.

What happens to all your stuff if you get sentenced to prison time? whos paying your rent? and how do you build back your life once released.

your possibly starting from the very bottom, living at a doss house on benefits, maybe a few hundred quid to buy clothes and necessary items.

but your essentially birthed out of the prison system and just left to survive or what?


The only people I know that have been sent down I haven't had contact with in decades and they were only around 16-21 doing small stints for a few weeks, apart from one guy who got 4 years and served 2.5)
none of them seemed that bothered, they made friends they stayed in contact with on the outside and seemed to enjoy learning new skills like mechanic courses etc.

this is all like 20 years ago though and it was only Lincoln prison which google says is for young offenders so not "real man prison"

 

[Richie]

Exactly. But if and when they do turn up, it's usual four hours later (do the real police work on a part time basis as we rarely see them on the streets where they should be and not stuck behind some desk) and if you report an armed seige, they're out in force m with armed police surrounding the area, helecopterss in the air and with police dogs within ten ,minutes.

Because shoplifting is on the same level of potential danger/fatalities as an armed siege? Or am I missing something

 

[Vanquish-Storm]

I remember back in the day our manager duty manager and security guard chased some bloke out of the store into the car park. Threw him into a bush and sat on him until the police arrived. Was only something like USB pen drives.

I also remember some shoplifter pocketed some stuff In front of an off duty police officer. He didn’t get out of the store.

 

[arknor]

Because shoplifting is on the same level of potential danger/fatalities as an armed siege? Or am I missing something

It's still considered a crime in progress? maybe the shop staff should intervene and we can get a few killings before the police get tough on crime again.

literally never see the police in my day to day life apart from when they are in a shop buying snacks or sitting in a city centre on a weekend watching the drunks.
what are they doing all the other times? they used to walk the beat... do patrols... actively police...
now it's all reactive policing but only if the crimes in a well off area.

your post code basically decides how bothered the police are

your local police are probably in a supermarket carpark like these 2 kissing each other for 20minutes
https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/two-cops-filmed-snogging-police-23952696