To think it's easy to shoplift?

[DotTheCaddy]

Came out of Tesco earlier and set the security alarms off. The security guard literally glanced at our receipt and waved us on without checking our bags or anything.

I also had an incident last week where something in my bag set the alarms of when I was going into a shop, so before I left I mentioned to the shop assistant that it might go off again and she just laughed and said she wouldn't come after me. Even though I could have been fibbing and covering my arse.

aibu to think it must be really easy to stoplift or am I missing something?

It really depends what you look like, that’s eye truth of it.

*the

It’s easy if you look like a middle aged respectable young women

Not so easy if you’re a tattooed young man like my dh.

He gets stopped sometimes even without alarms going

I used to work in retail (in a busy understaffed London store) and I think it is easy to shoplift as we just had so much else to simultaneously deal with.

Our security guards were useless too. One used to forget to activate the alarms!!! As in people could have £100s worth of stock in their bag and walk out without the alarms going off, even though the didn’t remove the security tags, as the towers weren’t on

@PurpleFlower1983

Spot on.

yes easy if you're white

I have done it several times by accident. Hanging clothes on the pram and forgetting to buy them. Once I walked right passed the security guard in next with a kids t-shirt hanging on the pram and didn't notice until I got back to the car.

Agree, it really does depend what you look like. For a middle class white women maybe.

Am white but probs working class and looked quite scruffy. DH in trackies and no tattoos visible in this weather. Suspect you're all probs right though.

As someone who spent years monitoring CCTV/doing security work - yes, it's piss easy and happens a lot more than you think it does. It would also surprise you that the demographic we found to be on the rob the most was the middle aged people who seemed middle class and well to do. Obviously you have your standard scumbag gangs in, and people who are struggling with drug addiction and need money to fund their habit, but it was the middle aged/class people that surprised me the most. Bedding, toys, clothes, joints of meat. The lot. Security guards now also have it hard because they are no longer allowed to touch people or are at least discouraged from doing it. The rules for the supermarket I monitored for were that they were only allowed to suggest a suspect steps back into the store and weren't allowed to grab them like they used to. The suspect can then say no and walk off with the goods and we let the Police know, but they are too busy to come out and because it's not a threat to life, they wont come.

In short, yeah, it's easy.

Interesting @ZoominMoomin. Were they more likely to pretend it was an accident if caught?

Possibly it is but you'll be pretty mortified if you do get caught. It could affect your job and the cost of car and house insurance as well as any activity were trust is involved.

@DotTheCaddy Yes definitely! They would play dumb right up until we shot the footage over the to guards to show the customer what they had done. Loads would apologise and say it was their first time (it wasn't a lot of the time!), some would pay for the item out of shame and then you had people who would run. People do weird things under pressure and when they've been caught out. I work in a supermarket in a different capacity and I still see the same types of people doing it. It is sad, really.

@ZoominMoomin exactly that. Always used to get looked at and watched as a black female and it used to really upset me because you would see people who were not my colour literally walking out of the shop with items that they have brazenly and obviously put in their bags. I learned to stop getting upset and just carrying doing what I'm doing and not get involved. If shops want to have their guys following me around because they have made presumptions about me and not nabbing the real criminals because they look like the wouldn't steal, then it is the shops loss and affects their bottom line profit not mine.

Im middle aged & told I look posh, for where I live, but I still get my bag searched if the alarm goes. Never did back home where I looked like everyone else.

I got stopped leaving a m&s minimarket and I'm a white elderly woman. Not too scruffy. No tattoos.

That's really shit @Farle29 I'm sorry that happens to you. I hope this thread doesn't end up upsetting anyone. Like you I would never shoplift anyway I just find it strange that they dont seem to even care about checking when the alarms go off. What's the point having them?

@ZoominMoomin I suppose they were mortified if they thought their middle class-ness would always stop them getting caught! Morons.

I remember wandering round town and alarms seemed to be going off every time I entered or left a shop. When I got home I found one of a pair of sandals I'd bought had a security tag on. No one stopped me!

@Farle29 It is disgusting to me how security focus on black people and anyone they don't deem to be white. I saw it happen daily while white grannies waltzed past with holdalls full of swag. I'm sorry that you have to deal with it. I can't imagine the pain of being targeted due my skin colour. Just know that not all of us in security are out to get you! I know that's no consolation, but rest assured the majority of crimes I saw were committed by middle aged/posh white people!

@DotTheCaddy Totally! Would you believe as well we once had a copper pull out his Police badge when he was caught and tried to tell us he was trying to trick us! It takes all sorts.

I am white, elderly but was sent out of a local top end Supermarket because , apparently, i had been shopping "suspiciously". I still don't know what on earth i had done. Just doing my usual trundle for essentials and reduced items,

You obviously didn’t have a buggy because they’ll stalk you round the shop, stop you for any excuse and generally make you feel like you stole something anyway!

@Sobriquet (sp). Respectable middle aged female tattooed neck to foot here and never have any problem

I could easily get away with shoplifting, not that I would. I'm always setting alarms off in shops and never get searched even though I always stop and wait for an assistant. Happens in M&S and Next regularly. I just get waved through.

White, late 30s, toddler in tow, usually dressed in typical mum fashion (jeans, trainers, jumper, mum bun, harassed expression)

I think self-scanning has probably made it easier?