Thieves getting away with it

[seashells11]

My DD manages a small shop in the town center. Last week a man was hanging about near the door, my DD asked "can I help you"?. The man grabbed 2 items worth £20 and said " no I'm fine, just taking these" and ran off.

So going off past experience she decided to find a pcso (who she finds to be more helpful than the police), so locks the shop up and goes off in search. There's CCTV in the shop so the pcso asks to come and have a look.

Anyway to cut a long story short, he recognises this man as a known shoplifter, goes off in search of him and finds him in another shop selling the stolen items on.

The real police were called and even though they had their man, proof on camera too, let him go. Said for such a small amount not worth the bother. The pcso later said to DD, if it's under £500 it never gets to court. 🤔

I'm shocked tbh, habitual thieves will know this and just carry on and on. No deterrent, nothing. What the hells going on?

It's not really a surprise to me since house burglaries and car thefts are never investigated in my area (Met Police). You just report and you're given a reference number before the case is closed.

I would imagine in this case they'd be more interested in the shop owner potentially buying stolen goods.

What was it that was stolen?

I work in retail, we ring the police at least 4 times a week due to known shoplifters. We have CCTV and know their names... Police never bother coming out.

It was some kind of protein mix.

Isn't it strange though.