Shoplifting..... So desperate at Christmas

[stubbs0412]

Not me btw
Whilst waiting in supermarket queue someone was escorted out by the police...."shoplifters" says the cashier. "Well, people are just so desperate this time of year aren't they?" Says the person in front of me. I could feel myself actually agreeing, is this u? R my morals slipping? I honestly don't think I would report someone I saw shoplifting food either.

Wallison-
I was in Greggs and a young bloke took advantage of it being very busy, picked up sandwich from the fridge and ran off. Two blokes in the queue (looked like office types) ran after him. They came back minus the offender or sandwich and proceeded to join in with old crow behind the counter, launching into a vile verbal attack about 'smackheads', 'tramps', 'scum' etc.
They looked at me as if to coax me to join in.
I said that man stealing something to eat is someones son, someones brother- how desperate in life do you have to be to steal an egg mayonaisse sandwich?

My brother was a heroin and crack addict. Very long story but he would steal the clothes off your back if he had the opportunity. Low life? perhaps to some but when I looked at him I saw the beautiful four year old boy who I adored as a little brother. I didnt want to see the emaciated wreck he had become.

sorry- probably gone off track a bit here. but I think some will get the point im trying to make.

I've just done a £180 shop in Tesco on the scan as you go, and was quite surprised that I was not stopped at the end for a spot check, I could easily have had another £50 of stuff hidden in my overflowing trolley, and it MUST happen.

There are plenty of poor but honest people who would never ever steal and would rather go without, so I do think shoplifters should be reported.

Another retail manager here who has been verbally abused,threatened,assaulted by shoplifters along with every single other colleague of mine.
If my stocktake result is higher than acceptable I can be disciplined and put on measures that can lead to my dismissal.
Sorry but I have absolutely no fucking sympathy for shoplifters whatever the reason,if you can't afford it you don't have it.Christmas ain't compulsory you know,regardless of peer pressure.
I don't feel sympathy for people who threaten me and my team with knives,guns,needles or who smash up my store or threaten to kill me.get some help,I haven't made you take the shit you choose to put in your body

Sorry but your sentiments are complete nonsense.

One of the enduring benefits of a welfare state is that everyone has sufficient income for basic essentials.

Ergo, no one is desperate.
Poor yes. Very poor, possible but highly unlikely.
Desperate, no.

You and those likeminded are simply apologists for criminals, and I ponder your ultimate motive in thinking like this.

id feel sorry for them too

even if they had a drug habit it most be horrible to live that life

I hope your brother got some help, Tiredemma? I too, can only feel sympathy.

In response to people asking about the 'black market', the corner shop I worked in had amongst its target items:

Coffee (especially Nescafe)
Washing up liquid
Cheese
Bacon

That was where our security cameras were targeted.

We did have a man (quite affectionately) nicknamed 'the pie man', because he would regularly come in and try to snaffle a pie or two under his coat. We always managed to catch him and get him to put the pies back.

yes lougle- thank you. He did.

Long stint at rehab. Now very clean, spending christmas day with friends from NA (they have booked a meal at a hotel!- he never used to have any money)

Doesnt even drink.

While I will agree that addiction is a horrible thing to suffer from, it is something that is only suffered by people who have made very damaging personal choices. It's not an illness that could strike anyone regardless of their actions, it exclusively affects people who have made an active choice to consume something. Their personal choices made out of their personal circumstances may be deserving of sympathy and understanding, but as soon as they make their issues into a problem for someone else by stealing, they start to lose that sympathy.

I was six months pregnant when I was attacked at work for "watching" a shoplifter. I had been asked to keep an eye on a young lad who was known to us and was doing just that, in a non obtrusive way, whilst facing up the shelves at the front of the store.

He verbally attacked me, to the point that the shop manager had to intervene and the police were called. I was shook up, but I stood my ground. Shoplifting effects us all.

@AchyFox: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

Oh sorry, that wasn't a joke?

I work for a charity and this week alone have spoken to 6 different individuals who have had their benefits stopped just in time for Christmas.

If benefits have been stopped then that's where charity steps in. Not shop owners and their employees.

I'd probably offer to buy the items for them. PeterParkerSays

Have you actually ever done this? (personally I think you are telling porkies)

How about if a person is mugged? Where would your sympathies lie then?

Or do you seriously believe in victimless crimes?

If what you say is true, I'd love to know which shops you frequent. I might just tow along on the nick, and if caught point to you with a pleading face and state 'She'll pay, she knows how poor and needy I am'

3 of which were families with kids who no matter what happens will miss out on £200 income they were expecting. Yesterday was the last day the foodbank will be open till Jan and they only give 3 days of food.

Yy sparkly-it does.I have had to physically stand in front of a man to stop him from attacking a staff member who was 7 months pregnant.
I screamed at her to get off the shop floor and luckily because I gave him enough 'fuck you attitude' he backed down and left.
She had the cheek to say 'good morning sir' to him as he entered and then started filling his bags with stock.
I was terrified and physically sick after he left,but had to pretend otherwise in front of him.luckily it worked.
So Im sorry if people think we should all feel sorry for shoplifters and their problems,when you deal with the threat every fucking day,when you see the fear they put into people because they are often so off their head they don't give a shit what they say or do to you,when you receive a bollocking from your boss because you couldn't control your stock as closely as they expect you to,when you have to use staff as unofficial guards because your company won't pay for security,when you have to warn your staff NOT to chase after shoplifters to get the stock back in case they are assaulted the poor excuses and sympathy doesn't really get much time from me I'm afraid

I'm talking about the notion that everyone in this country has enough income to keep the wolf from the door. If you are already skint then something like that happens I can understand why people shoplift, not going to condone it but I understand.

What charity will step in and pay for nappies, milk, electric, gas, a few days before Christmas? Most charitable grants take ages to process and are meant for furniture and white goods not basics. No crisis loans any more. The local scheme that has replaced them won't buy shopping and turns down 70% of applications anyway.

FrostedButts

No I'm not joking.

If the welfare state is failing to the extent that people are starving, that is another very serious matter.
Clearly no court should be convicting in such genuinely desperate circs.

However, there are 2.5 million unemployed and 11 million pensioners in the UK.

They are not starving.

Achyfox, have you not looked at the news? The government is dismantling the welfare state. Benefits are cut, managers in job centres are emailing staff ordering them to issue X amount of 'sanctions' per week (this has been documented) ie stopping benefits unfairly, the number of errors and mistakes made by the benefits agency thousands of people are relying on foodbanks... and that's just people on benefits, let alone the working poor.

How on earth can you issue such a sweeping statement? Go and see the Marmot review - he worked out very carefully what is needed to stay healthy - not wealthy, just fit and healthy - and says clearly that the state pension is below that level. And other benefits are even less 'generous'.

As a till supervisor for 2 yrs yes I have seen the horrible nasty shoplifting men who stride in with a laundry bag, fill it with meat and sprint up the road to sell it to the pub for the meat raffle. And the drunk aggressive teenage boys who try and intimidate you at the till while their mate sticks bottles of vodka down his trousers. I have also seen old ladies in tears because they are 50p short and have nothing in their purse, mums having to go without milk because we only had 2 pint cartons and their vouchers were for 7 pints. If I had the money I would gladly buy a shop for anyone who couldn't afford it. But I'm not going to sneer at or be disgusted by anyone who can't afford to feed themselves or their family.

I agree with everythingsouthbank said, when you have been threated with dirty needles and knives you lose sympathy pretty quickly.

Also this:

the world will not end if you can't celebrate Christmas

Amen

I really fucking hate the dehumanizing way that some people talk about people with addictions on here (and elsewhere). "Low lives"? Really? Try human beings, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, parents, in the grips of a fucking tortuous illness that makes them miserable and sick and about as desperate and worthy of empathy as any other person desperate enough to steal.

I do kind of see your point. However there's a big part of me which thinks that at some stage they made a decision to try heroin, etc. and yes they may have had an awful upbringing but then plenty of people have who haven't made the decision to take drugs. But I take my "low life" comment back and apologise. However I do have more empathy for someone who's desperate to eat rather than someone who's desperate to make money for drugs.

pensioners also get 2-3x the money a younger person gets. and yet we are supposed to bemoan the fate of elderly people in poverty on one hand, while simultaneously shitting on the working age unemployed who have nothing either.

a 24 year old with no job will have 55 pounds out of which to feed, light, heat, themselves how are they to put anything away for a rainy day/sanction day? I've been that 24 year old, its not fun, remember a Xmas in the dark eating partially cooked 9p noodles cause the hot plate wasn't working so had to use kettle water. All tidings of comfort and joy

If it was all about people starving, then the security tags would be on the value loaves of bread and value tins of beans, not razors, batteries, pregnancy tests and the like.