To think security should have let thief stole?

[User271947]

Was doing my food shop earlier and happened to see the scene of a man getting caught stealing milk. Just a bottle of milk.

My heart broke for this thief, if he wasn't desperate he wouldn't have stolen... it wasn't anything he could gain money from.

I thought if security just turned a blind eye and let him walk home with it he might have fed himself or someone, or at least took away that bit of hunger. Yes it's their job but I think sometimes humanity should be above.

Would you have compassion for this or am I being naive?

Maybe we would @Lastfreakinglegs , however the security guard,s job might be in jeopardy If they turned a blind eye and then they could be the one unable to feed themselves .

Yes theft is theft but once police arrive it'll be up to them what happens next depending on his previous. It's not always arrest. You don't know who the person is or what they have done prevously. Police can take the opportunity to help people who are desperately in need.

Lovely to see so much compassion in here I feel incredibly sorry for him and would have offered to pay for it.
My husband was very close to stealing nappies a long time ago but luckily had enough points to pay for them.
People are desperate. Try to imagine being that desperate instead if being so bloody moral.
The security guard was in a hard position but he could have just said he didn't see it. Even with CCTV I think it'd be hard to prove he actually saw it. I hope nothing will come of it anyway. He'll get banned. Police aren't going to take it seriously.

Whilst its kind hearted to say leave him be, its theft. You know the risk if you steal anything, even a pint of milk. You don't know how many other times he has stolen, he could be a regular for all you know which initially they turned a blind eye too.

I work in a supermarket. I’m on almost minimum wage. Do you feel sorry for me because my meagre yearly bonus (usually about £100 or so) is measured on how well our store has done at shrink?

Shoplifters take money out of the business and therefore money out of the pockets of the staff who all have bills to pay and mouths to feed.

I’m not blind to peoples suffering. If I come below budget on my weekly shop I always donate to the food bank. We have a donation point in store. That’s the place to get help if you need it.

Well good for you @Rosebel but you can't expect the security guard to turn a blind eye and potentially lose their own job 🙄

We used to have people try to interfere that it was "only a piny of milk" or "only a loaf of bread". We couldn't stop and explain that actually the person was banned and had been kicked out several times for nicking alcohol/razors/deodorants/verbally abusing staff.

@ReceptacleForTheRespectable

Stealing is wrong, but the man clearly needs help rather than punishment. It would be good if, in cases like this, the police did an assessment of whether food bank support would make a difference. There is a world of difference between stealing one bottle of milk and stealing valuable goods to order.

Punishing the theft without addressing the cause is a waste of time, and wrong imo.

Shoplifters are not normally prosecuted for amounts less than about £100, unfortunately the regular ones know that. If a shop can prove someone has stolen smaller amounts over a period of time, cctv etc then action can then be taken.

My heart broke for this thief, if he wasn't desperate he wouldn't have stolen

Did you hear about TV chef and restaurateur Antony Worrall Thompson shoplifting cheese and wine a few years back? He wasn't poor or desperate.

If he was desperate then he would have been given a food bank referral from one of the many professions which can refer. When people steal, we all pay more so it cant just be allowed to happen when it's an essential item.

However, I spotted a kid stealing food once (as did the security guard) and I pretended i knew them and paid.

Whereas if the security guard had called the police, there would have been an investigation into the child's circumstances, and the people who could do something about it would have been made aware that the child and his family needed help.

@Rosebel

You would have got nappies from the food bank.

I used to work in retail (albeit fashion).

I wouldn’t let him walk off, I would have asked for the item back discreetly and politely. I would not have banned him/not inform management or security/not call police etc which would be the standard procedure. It would be my way of going easy on a genuine person.

As a customer, you could have offered to buy it for him if you felt that sorry for him. It would have been what, £1? Whereas the security guard would get the sack for blatantly not following his job specification.

Security guards are paid shite wages and often work via an agency with limited employment rights and job security. I don't expect them to look the other way as if observed to do so they can lose their own job.

When I had a job stacking shelves overnight at tesco my team manager told us never, ever to bother getting involved in trying to stop shoplifters. The official line was different but he said it wasn't worth getting hammered trying to stop someone thieving (we lived and worked in a lovely place).

@Rosebel

Lovely to see so much compassion in here I feel incredibly sorry for him and would have offered to pay for it. My husband was very close to stealing nappies a long time ago but luckily had enough points to pay for them. People are desperate. Try to imagine being that desperate instead if being so bloody moral. The security guard was in a hard position but he could have just said he didn't see it. Even with CCTV I think it'd be hard to prove he actually saw it. I hope nothing will come of it anyway. He'll get banned. Police aren't going to take it seriously.

It's not a lack of compassion, there is help available (yes I know we shouldn't need food banks but unfortunately we do). As someone who works in a shop and seen the damage that thiefs have done to some colleagues compassion and sympathy is wearing a bit thin.

I lost sympathy for all these "poor desperate people" when local businesses were getting burglared by them. Food was untouched.

As pp somewhere above pointed out, there are servoces and charities everywhere which help with basics like food and drinks. And clothes.

Distraction theft !! Give the security guard something to do while his mate shoves a leg of lamb down his joggers !

In our place if they're obviously homeless or in obvious need and they're stealing food then we give them a sandwich. If someone was stealing a pint of milk I'd let them take it probably.

Alot of people, who are not at all desperate, do it for a laugh with low value items, sandwiches, chocolate bars or whatever, but even stuff they want

I wouldn't like to make a call on the security guards actions without knowing if the thief was a regular or not

To those who are saying security guard should turn a blind eye, spare a thought for the security guard who could lose their job if caught in anyway not doing it as they should.

Secondly, I'm sure none of you would want a security guard to turn a blind eye if, for example, someone stole your bag/wallet to feed their children with whatever amount they can collect from it. I know you may think it's different from a shop but spare a thought for the shop workers who often bear the brunt of the shortfall.

As some would always say (albeit in a different topic), don't be so 'woke' and 'virtue signally' for one group of people and not for others.

Wow some harsh comments on here. No one stealing milk is going to do it for thrills surely.

*not even

It's a very tough one. From the way you describe him it does sound as if he were desperate but you can't always assume that. I've knownn(through working in prisons) people who see shop lifting as a basic life skill and think that paying for groceries is something only a mug would do. One offender in particular springs to mind but there were plenty more. This man had been in and out of jail all his life and when I knew him he was coming to the end of a very long stretch. He'd turned his life around during that sentence. He was clean of alcohol for the first time since he was about 12. He'd come off methadone, learned to read and write and obtained a NVQ. He had a lot of counselling and was a calmer, more reasonable person than in the past. He was absolutely determined to go straight so he could live with his D.C. and be a positive role model for them. He also planned to help his partner out by doing the shoplifting for her! He genuinely didn't see shoplifting as a 'proper' crime .

the milk was likely to go with the stolen t bags....i dont view thieves with rose tinted glasses like mumsnet seems to

he may well have had a knife to pull if confronted, thats usually why they are so blatant. no 18 year old cashier all try to stop them then....zero sympathy for this poor 'starving' thief

i have lots of experience with this as a retail manager. even yesterday i was circling a thief in store, first day back and they are out

we dont have store security either

@Lastfreakinglegs people steal for all sorts of reasons