Shop lifting

[Marie0]

Apologies I am not sure if this is the right section to post, just after some advice...

My friend revealed to me last night that she regularly shoplifts. Funny thing is she has a very comfortable life style and certainly doesn't need to. (She has plenty of money)

She does it at supermarkets and steals groceries by putting them in a shopping bag which she hangs on the trolley and puts other items in the trolley.

She then goes to the checkout and says if she was caught (or asked) at the checkout about the other bag full of stuff she would simply say I've just bought all this stuff through the self service checkout and forgot a few items.

She said the Self service checkout asks if you want a print out for a receipt and she declines so therefore would simply say that she didn't think she would need the receipt.

I asked her why she does it and she says she gets a 'kick' out of it! Yesterday she stole a chicken, and jar of coffee. She says she only steals about £10 worth of goods every time she goes to the supermarket.

She doesn't appear to have any mental health issues and no criminal history. I didn't really react when she told me.

Certainly don't want her to get into trouble, but surely it's just a matter of time before she gets caught? I

AIBU if I tell her husband? But that's of course breaking her confidence.

Any advice??

Having worked retail, we had regular shoplifters that we were specifically told not to report. The store was collecting evidence over the course of time so they could eventually be charged with a much larger crime.

@Marie0
They don't need to sift through cctv. What do you think the security guy at the front of the store does? He;s smiling back as he knows he'll get her soon!

They have a list of known shoplifters and all they have to do is make a note when she comes in.

Oh, and by her reaction, I hope she gets caught.

Glint not many criminologists are overly concerned with crime, I know he isn't. But enough derailing from me!

And in answer to your actual question...

No it would not be unreasonable to tell her husband. She is a ready liar and admits to flirting and manipulating behaviour, so how do you know she even tells you the truth.

Does she think she's the only thief operating in those shops? On her logic, no shop would have any reason to have any concern about thieves.

Where I used to work, if you hadn't known who the store detectives were you never would have guessed or spotted them. You really wouldn't. I was always slightly in awe of their skills when I did become aware something was going on (the disparaging way security are often spoken about as "wannabe police" etc was certainly not merited).

And they didn't sit in a room half asleep with one eye on the CCTV. They'd actively be identifying known shoplifters, and taking action. It was much more sophisticated than I had previously imagined.

Not that I expect she'd believe that if you told her. Pride comes before a fall and all that.

Sounds like this is as much about her ego though as anything. Doubt there's anything you could say that would influence her. I would be distancing myself.

Bimgy85 - what made you stop?

@Purpleartichoke

was it successful? At what point did they “pounce”?

I would be really shocked and not at all impressed if a friend told me that. Clearly she has no morals and that would put me off her. I would tell her she should stop because she will get caught in the end and because it is selfish for many reasons and then leave her to it. I don’t think I would tell her husband but I would definitely let her know I wasn’t impressed and didn’t want any involvement whatsoever.

My friend works in a supermarket and believe me from the stories I hear, your friend will get caught - it's only a matter of time.
How embarrassing when she does, I'd leave it though and make sure you never go shopping with her. Guilt by association and all that.

They don't have to sit watching hours of cctv footage, there's programmes designed to spot certain activity and certain people. It's easily collated and double checked with 'manual' viewing, checking records of transactions etc.

There's no requirement for shops to report immediately, especially while still gathering evidence.

Even IF you think all that is "conspiracy theory" plain clothes store detectives are absolutely not, neither is the potential for another customer to see and report.

As anouk says it's highly professionally organised (why wouldn't it be when they're losing so much money to it?) and store detectives absolutely aren't obvious, they use people of a variety of backgrounds and appearances AND change them regularly.

Plus she's an amateur working alone, no "colleagues" distracting security - if she's doing this fairly frequently I'll be very surprised if she's not caught soon.

My point was Grapista that if security call the police to get someone arrested they are arrested for shoplifting. Not shoplifting on 13 occasions which the security staff have built up a “file” on. Security staff are just civilians. What the staff should do and would do is get the person arrested 13 times, because that will lead to further action through the courts. Not their files.

@glintandglide

One of the few prosecutions that arose from all of the shoplifters that we had over the years was a case of exactly that. We had cctv going back over a long period that detailed her pervious visits and what was stolen. When it went to court it was charged as a load of separate offenses but all in one trial

Why do you think footage of someone stealing wouldn't stand as evidence? It's a recording of a crime

I didn’t say it wouldn’t be evidence

I don't like dishonest people and I hate thieves. I would phone the store when she goes shopping there and tell them what she is and what she does.

Glint
I've worked in retail, and where I worked they did save recordings of shoplifters.
Reason being, the Police weren't interested in arresting someone for stealing a tin of beans although staff are always on the lookout for thieves, it's impossible to catch them all, so sometimes it was the customers who approached us and would say they'd seen someone walking out with steak in their trousers for example. (The thief being long gone at this point)
We'd then immediately rewind our cctv, capture the thief and store the footage, and put a print out of the thief on our 'rogues gallery' board (as well as circulating their description to other stores)

It's quite difficult to actually catch some thieves 'in the act' as some are very good at getting in and out the store without being noticed at first.

Thieves also visit the stores at different days/times in order to not be as recognized because they know the staff frequently rotate shifts.

Eventually, the thieves who've managed to 'get away' on a regular basis become 'cocky' and that's when they're caught red handed. By this time there is often previous recordings of their antics on the system which are also used as evidence against them.

I completely agree they save recordings. That’s not the same as building a “crime file” to provide the police with in some kind of sting operation to get the shoplifter charged with “more serious” shoplifting charges

Glint

You are now contradicting yourself.

@glintandglide

The videos remain evidence, thus a "file" has been built. If a shop chooses to record someone stealing rather than physically intervene each time it does not reduce the fact that a crime was committed

How? I never said shops don’t save recordings, I’ve never commented on such a thing.

And you can talk, all this bollocks about building up a case about AWT has been conveniently forgotten about hasn’t it?

That’s completely different. CCTV footage is saved (it has to be legally) but my point is, if you call the police on shoplifting incident 13 and expect harsher punishment because they’re going to take the other 12 incidents into account you’re being very niave. Of course it’s possible they will, but it’s entirely more likely they outcome will be exactly the same regardless. And anyone saying otherwise does not have knowledge of the criminal justice system I’m afraid.

If it were a destitute single mum stealing a loaf of bread and a tin of beans to fees her kids. I would understand and sympathise.
However not a bloody middle class women/man who's rolling in the dough.

BTW an interesting side note

I built another file on another shoplifter and when the police nicked him, in our shop, and I gave them video of this guy stealing stuff going back a number of months and the police just nfa'd it, illegally

Cos that's the reality of shoplifting, it's already officially been minimized by the police and cps to the point where they won't take action and so it becomes a massively under reported crime

Be honest, your friend is you isn’t it?

But you’re just a Civilian Andy. It’s no different to me “building a file” on my neighbour. It doesn’t automatically give me any weight with the police and neither does it affect the punishment.

Why would it be die? That’s a weird thing to say