Apparently stealing is no longer of concern to the police

[ElektraLOL]

Thanks, no doubt to the massive cuts this government have forced on councils.

So yesterday, I was waiting in the pharmacy to get my medicine. On duty was a young, female pharmacist and a technician who was also young and female.

Whilst they were busy, a man walked into the shop and walked behind the pharmacy counter. His behaviour was strange enough to draw my attention. Usually I don't take any notice of others in the pharmacy. He then went around picking up stuff on shelves, some of which he put into his back pocket, and one thing he took to the counter to buy.

As he was leaving I told the pharmacist that I had seen him stealing items and she called the police, whilst trying to keep him on site. The emergency services wouldn't send anyone, were rude to her and suggested she was making it up!

After all this happened the poor woman was nearly in tears, said she was sick of this happening and that it was not the first time and that people were trying to steal prescription only meds too.

So apparently theft is not important enough to deal with now?!!

It's petty theft for non-prescription, off the shelf items (ie he didn't threaten pharmacist and get behind the counter for highly secure medicines) which fitted into his back pocket (so, small amount)

Would cost probably several hundred pounds for police to come round, do interviews etc for a packet of £5.99 plasters or whatever it was. We are not in the 1950s any more with a village bobby. The police are out there dealing with all sorts of violent crime.

Around here apparently the police policy is that a theft of items worth less than £200 gets a stiff ignoring. If you’re burgled you’re just given a crime number for your insurance company.

We had a major theft of intellectual property and equipment. The IP was worth the most, the police said the files were only worth the price of recycled paper and they wouldn't investigate unless the value was over £10,000 and for us to file an insurance claim with the police file number provided. When mentioned the equipment was worth over £20,000 they immediately came over. A BBC called the police as she was home alone with kids and heard someone breaking in through her garage door. She grabbed the kids, locked herself and them in the bathroom and called the police - who asked if she actually saw someone come in. She said she hadn't so they said they wouldn't respond until she went out and verified someone was actually inside the house illegally. Beyond ridiculous!

*A BBC reporter

Sadly, the police have ignored this type of offence in pharmacies for ages, but it there fault that things are then being abused! .
I am a retired pharmacist. Several years ago I had a bloke with a forged diazepam prescription. I pretty crude forgery at that. Kept him in the shop while checking if I had the stock, and rang police, ho refused to come as a crime hadn't been committed ( they said) So I said words to the effect, oh do I need to dspense it then?. The response was , if you do that we will arrest you for illegal supply!!!
I rasied it with the Local Pharmaceutical Committee who wrote to the Chif Constable and complained. He agreed there was an offence ( passing a forged document intending to get a benefit or something) and I had the local chief inspector around to apologise.

Pharmacies and other stores know who their shoplifters are, they have the power to eject them and ban them.
And without the threat of police they don't go, they know the police won't come, a ban means sod all, they threaten shop staff and walk off with what they want. We have a tiny shop, local co-op. It's now got a security guard. Other local shops can't afford that kind of outlay.

Would cost probably several hundred pounds for police to come round, do interviews etc for a packet of £5.99 plasters or whatever it was. We are not in the 1950s any more with a village bobby. The police are out there dealing with all sorts of violent crime.

We're paying police officers to enforce internet etiquette.

I think in this context it isn't wrong to expect they follow long-established understanding among law enforcement officers and budget for keeping a lid on the low level theft and criminal damage that can make or break a precinct depending on whether criminals know someone will react to them.

This makes me angry that someone can come in and steal in front of full view of others and the police are that short they can't do anything!
Mps sit in their ivory towers cutting police and this is what happens.
Whose to say that man isn't telling others "go nick what you want from there they don't do anything"
Is it just me that thinks it's getting scarier out there?

To the pp who said they can ban them. Yes they can but having worked for minimum wage in retail there is not a chance in hell I'm approaching someone like that to tell them to get outbecause they are banned.

Yes it's not the police, it's the government. No matter what they try to tell us with their figures, there are not enough police officers.

They also don't bother with malicious phone calls even with witnesses, FYI

Our local Conservatives are campaigning for the local elections on the basis that they won't put council tax up. It makes a nice headline for their leaflets. But many of us don't mind paying a bit more if it's going to essential services.

You need to report four lesbians sitting on chairs, the police will be around mob-handed #LesbiansOnChairs

We own a shop and the Police couldn't care less about shoplifters. My DP caught one man clearly under the influence of something steal an item. He chased him and with the help of a passerby (who happened to be a security guard) pinned the thief down and managed to get the item back. By some coincidence a van of Police was driving past on the way to their Christmas party and they managed to flag it down and get some assisstance.

A report was taken and they asked if we wanted to press charges, we said yes. We've never heard anything back from them and this was well over a year ago now. There's no incentive for people not to steal these days. A lot of shoplifters aren't even remotely stealthy about it. I dread seeing one come in and pretty much stand over them and try to be overly helpful so they leave without trying to steal.

justarandom I worked in retail for years (well before the police cuts debacle) and would never ring emergency services and expect police attendance for a petty low-value theft of an item/s that would fit in a back pocket, off the normal shelves somewhere like a pharmacy (ie not a jewellers!)

Shop assistant didn't even see it herself. Also OP says "as he was leaving" she told assistant who rang police and tried to keep him onsite. Until he's left the shop with items unpaid he hasn't actually stolen anything.

Also how do you know it was a precinct

Outanabout. 🤣

This has been going on for years, well before well before the Tories. I lived in Bethnal Green in 2001. Every weekend the same group of Asian boys would steal a car, joyride it around our estate until it ran out of petrol then smash it up and set it on fire. Fire brigade attended weekly and could have confirmed both the thefts and arson so it wasn’t like I was a lone voice. I reported it months and months after it began. I related the crime and was asked to give a description, describes their age groups, height and style of dress but as soon as I mentioned that they were Asian they said they believed my report was racially motivated and if I reported again I would be arrested and investigated basically for wrongthink even though a couple of phone
calls could have proved via official sources I was telling the truth. Didn’t even bother reporting the Louis Farrakhan tapes played over loudspeaker across the main road daily which called for mass murder.

I know they rarely come out for the less serious sort of crime, but I worked in a role not so long ago which involved serious fraud offences being uncovered, some of which funded terrorism, linked to an extremely high profile extremist. They did bugger all with it and left it dormant for ages.

They’re really just a Stasi like thought police and have been for a long, long time.

Our garage was broken into years ago and as it wasn’t secure any more the word was put out there were rich pickings to be had in there. Observed two lads going in so parked our car against the door to stop them escaping and then rang the police. Police came and arrested them, thanked us profusely for making their job easier by catching them. Next we heard they were released without charge as under age. What was galling was one set up a garage business using the tools he had nicked on a previous visit to our garage.

We never had any problems from the yoof of our area again however. I used to get called a c* in the street on occasion though.

@ILoveAllRainbowsx that's such bollocks. The cuts they have made are ideological. No money left because of Labour...so why can they afford to give massive tax breaks to the rich I wonder?

They also don't attend burglaries. We had a break-in and they said they wouldn't attend. I got a bit annoyed and they finally came- they then implied they had only been sent because we lived at a nice address. (and that it was wrong that they were prioritised to more affluent areas- which I agreed with) .

When they arrived it then then turned out that there had been multiple break ins all along the road- many of whom were still asleep and didn't know.

But when my car ran out of petrol on the local roundabout I had 4 cars attend including armed police.

Oh, and that’s without even mentioning the systematic cover up of tens if not hundreds of thousands of female children for decades on racially motivated grounds.

There is an opportunity to show our disgust with the current Conservative government by not voting for them in the local council and European elections in May.

Hmm, they should attend to theft from a pharmacy because of what could have been taken. He's most likely a drug user and may be known to the police.

You need to report four lesbians sitting on chairs, the police will be around mob-handed

Or state the truth about something in the public domain already that someone doesn't like. The police will have plenty of time to arrest you, lock you up all day, or ring you up repeatedly to "check your thinking"