Shoplifting - have public scuffles with other customers become a thing??

[FurCoatNoKnickz]

Twice in the last week, I’ve witnessed members of the public stepping in to stop shoplifting, with pushes and scuffles breaking out. I had to call the police. It felt like shoppers are starting to get fed up, butt in, shout things, physically prevent people, push shoplifters and even scuffle.

Are other people noticing this elsewhere?

Unfortunately the public forget that the amount of police officers has been severely cut by our previous government at the start of their term and not replaced adequately. Also there is just so much crime going on that the public aren't aware of and just not enough police officers to deal with it

Take the metaphorical shackles off the police and allow them to fight crime by any means necessary. Abolish all "human rights" for convicted criminals.

This. The teenage balaclavas have control where I am. Assaulting other kids, adults. Intimidation is their forte. Police won’t come out, unless someone’s been stabbed or shot. In the town centre shoplifting is a daily given from the drug addicted. The staff just have to let it go. Police won’t come out for that either. Anyone questioning your post is clearly very privileged to not understand what you mean.

It didn’t look like police where I live can control it either. Last week I watched someone sell their heist right under the security cameras of the shop, to a nicely dressed young woman and her friend. It looked like it might have been stolen to order.

Came across one yesterday. Two security guards asking for stolen stuff back and thief said 'make me' and just walked off. It seems like all crimes are being legalised, apart from tweets or expressing any opinions not on the script.

We now live in a lawless country. Makes me laugh when I hear Starmer go on about fighting Putin when we can't control our own borders or stop theft

I find it useful. I wasn’t across this. It is not right.

I don't think this will happen!

The proliferation of self service tills is a thought out marketing/business strategy surely...? ('you don't have to wait!'... Etc)

Any shoplifting losses are made up easily (I suspect) by only employing one supervisor per 12 self service tills (in local Waitrose), rather than 12 checkout people.

Like others I'd never get involved in someone shoplifting... (apart from alerting member of staff.... If you can find one!), nope not compromising my safety for a big business to have already have written it off as part of their business strategy!

I would love it if the police could do something about shoplifting as I feel genuinely unsafe in lots of shops now, more so the co-op and local versions of supermarkets, especially when I’m with my children as so many times we have witnessed the shoplifters barge past paying customers as they hurtle towards the door.

I saw a male customer entering the co-op recently who only just kept his balance as a shoplifter knocked into him as he was racing out with his bag of plunder - God forbid he’d gone into one of my children with the same force, I dread to think what the impact would’ve been on either of them.

Many, but not all of those I witness appear to be high on drugs, or they look as though they are users aggressively stealing to urgently fund their next fix, and so this leads me to feel further unsafe.

The police are massively stretched though, and if they didn’t have so much knife crime, drunken fights and assaults, domestic violence and youth based issues to deal with in my area alone, then perhaps they could be more responsive.

Apologies - my observation wasn't directed at you or anything you've said.

For clarification

I was puzzled by the poster saying something like "now young people understand national service"

I definitely am familiar with the problems described here. I just can't see any sign of anyone wanting to go for national service.

People who intervene in shoplifting are idiots. Given the prevalence of knife crime, and the demographics of the typical shoplifter, such action could end very badly.

There is absolutely no way I would ever consider putting myself in potential danger to protect the financial interests of a £multi billion corporate like Tesco.

If retailers really want to prevent shoplifting instead of just bleating that it’s the police’s problem or society’s problem they need to invest in taking security seriously. Replacing workers with self-service checkouts which are an open invitation to theft is doing the opposite.

I got involved in a conversation at the checkout in our local supermarket recently.

The customer in front was an off duty police officer who had come to arrest a shoplifter at the store a few days before, the checkout lady had asked her what had happened.

The policewoman said that the CPS had decided not to prosecute, and that this happened all the time. It is a waste of police time if they arrest people who are never prosecuted or punished and many of them are as fed up about it as we are.

I always thought that 'Bring back National Service' was a bloody stupid idea - who wants all of those individuals engaging in violent crime taken away for two years to be taught how to use a wider range of weapons and kill with their bare hands?

A huge proportion of people come out of the armed services and develop mental healthy problems and addiction and homelessness so perhaps national service is not the panacea this contributor is claiming.

Anyways we are straying off the subject here.

Is this not a thing other people have witnessed? Or is it? Physical and increasingly confrontational fights in shops with shoplifters?

No, because most people have more sense than to insert themselves between an open door and an aggressive thief in defence of a multi million pound corporation over fifty quid's worth of Cathedral City and a bottle of Smirnoff.

Or now that we live in a digital world perhaps people should order before they get to the shop and then pick up.

Or they can order digitally in the shop (like we do in Argos or Macdonalds) and have the staff give us our shopping.

Some provision would have to be made for people who can't manage digital stuff however.

If they switched to doing something like this they could then expand their cafes and make money from sales of snacks and drinks that we could order while we wait for our shopping to be packed up.

I have never seen a member of the public intervene in shoplifting.

However I see shoplifters doing their thing every single week. Sometimes a couple of times a week. Some of it is so blatant. They know they are not going to be challenged.

Not enough police
not enough courts and staff to run them.
not enough political will to raise taxes to cover the above
easier to reduce benefits money for disabled people and claim to be reducing the size of the bloated public sector. Which is the exact opposite of what’s required. More tax inspectors. Less loopholes. Custodial sentences served at home on a tag.

Nail on the head. We're rapidly becoming a lawless country. It's not just shoplifting, it's tax evasion, benefit fraud, and lots of other "low level" crime like untaxed vehicles, litter, etc. We need to massively ramp up enforcement agencies to take control again, but before we do that, we need to revolutionise the criminal justice system so that it's actually worth having enforcement on the ground, whereas at the moment, the courts/CPS refuse to punish those who are caught, so it's pointless trying to tackle them.

We also need compulsory ID cards so that "IF" they are caught, the police can be certain as to their true identity. At the moment, far too many give false details and disappear within certain communities, never to be found again!

Vigilantism will land you in prison. No one gets a free pass to be violent, not even self-righteous dads.

I go to our local Co Op most lunchtimes for a meal deal lunch. At least weekly, I witness shoplifting - not young hooded hooligans or homeless people, but "tradesmen" in liveried vans/lorries such as roofers, scaffolders, etc., in groups of 2 or 3, just walk in, help themselves to their lunches and walk out again and drive off in their vans. Staff can see them but take no action at all, don't even make a note of the vehicle registration numbers! I took a photo of a lorry once, and checked it through the online systems - out of date road tax, out of date MOT! Probably driver without a valid licence and no insurance either. They clearly know that they're not going to be caught, but even if caught, they'd probably give false details and "disappear".

There are literally people running out of supermarkets with bottles and bags of food!

Couldn’t agree more. The stores have brought this on themselves with the prevalence of self checkouts, it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that shoplifting would increase, they’ve basically invited it. I’d never put myself at risk to protect their property and people who do are fools.

I have seen a few on tiktok lately, I think some (not all) are confronting for the views