I witnessed shop lifting in Accrington's Holland & Barrett today

[MontyVeda]

Er, no, seeing as the plod aren't involved. That's because they are more or less useless when it comes to what they consider petty crime. If they were involved I'd willingly give a statement and if needed appear as a witness in court.

I believe the police are starting to take it a lot more seriously again, at least on paper
As with traffic offences, their dwindling resources will always come into play, which means taking something seriously and actually having the resources to do something effective are two different things

 

[Accy cyclist]

Our managers have barred quite a lot of customers over the years. Some try to come back in and are told to leave, and they do. No police have been involved in any official 'barring' of customers and no barred customer has demanded they have a right to come in unless we get a court order.

I can't get my head around a shoplifter caught in the act, having the gall to come back and try to rob the place again!

 

[MontyVeda]

I can't get my head around a shoplifter caught in the act, having the gall to come back and try to rob the place again!

Many get barred for being to staff rather than shoplifting. Those are the ones I know keep trying to come back.

 

[DRM]

I think my goldsmith/jeweler friend has the best idea. Quote....If they try to get behind the counter I'll treat their head as a baseball. Meaning he has a baseball bat and isn't afraid to use it...all in self defence of course.

You might want to consider deleting that post, I think the police would be dragging him away for a serious chat if he did that

 

[sheddy]

Ex Cop Alfie Moore - be alert at Christmas
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001tqfj

 

[Dave7]

You might want to consider deleting that post, I think the police would be dragging him away for a serious chat if he did that

Yes. If I am correct you can only get away with using something that is normally to hand ie at a stretch, if you are a golfer and have been practicing your putting then you have an argument.......not (sadly) a baseball bat.

 

[MontyVeda]

You might want to consider deleting that post, I think the police would be dragging him away for a serious chat if he did that

Is it correct that even the trained and licenced security guards can't put a hand on the shoulder of a shoplifter?

If the thief just walks away with a bag of loot, all the security guard can do is follow them and politely ask for the goods back. I've seen this happening and the guard had every opportunity to grab the mahoosive holdall full of prime cuts, yet didn't (or couldn't?).

 

[DRM]

Is it correct that even the trained and licenced security guards can't put a hand on the shoulder of a shoplifter?

If the thief just walks away with a bag of loot, all the security guard can do is follow them and politely ask for the goods back. I've seen this happening and the guard had every opportunity to grab the mahoosive holdall full of prime cuts, yet didn't (or couldn't?).

I honestly don't know, I think (99.9% sure) a security guard has no powers to detain, and even laying a hand on someone might constitute assault, as in keeping a baseball bat on the premises to rearrange a thiefs head, would be an ott, totally overboard reaction & not taking reasonable steps to protect your property.

 

[winjim]

I would. The barcode doesn't carry BB date information, so how on earth could the barcode alert the cashier to anything but the product and its price? I'm not expecting you to provide an answer, because there isn't one.

I agree that the manager has a lot to put up with. The store i work in looses upwards of £100,000 a year to shoplifting, and that's just one store.

It could prompt the cashier to check lot no and expiry if the system knows it has short date products in its inventory.

 

[MontyVeda]

It could prompt the cashier to check lot no and expiry if the system knows it has short date products in its inventory.

yeah but... it's a lot simpler for a shelf stacker to check the dates by eye when replenishing stock, which is what usually happens.

 

[Accy cyclist]

I honestly don't know, I think (99.9% sure) a security guard has no powers to detain, and even laying a hand on someone might constitute assault,

I've seen security guards block thieves attempting to get out the shop/store while members of the public have intervened by grabbing the thief by any way they can. One bloke even sat on one while waiting for the police, which was probably a long wait. I think the public now know that security guards are in a no win situation and some decide to do the work for them, regardless of the possibility of being accused of assault.

 

[Accy cyclist]

This is quite eerie. While walking through Accrington town centre today a PCSO approached me and told me I'd been marked as an easy target. I thought it was her way of just making conversation, but no, she told me someone had stuck a written on sticker on the back of my coat. I took my coat off and saw a sticker, about 4 inch square with the capital letters LR written in marker pen on it. According to the PCSO LR means little resistance. She said someone working in a group will have spotted something of value on me and either placed this sticker on me themselves or it was done by another of this group, then someone else would've robbed me in an off CCTV spot. Not only did this give me an eerie feeling, but I felt quite insulted with these thieves thinking I'd be an easy target due to offering little resistance! What the hell eh! I know Accrington has gone a bit downhill, but it's like something out of New York or even London. I'll be paranoid now walking round and I'll be looking over my shoulder even more that I already do!

Just thinking about this. How did this person manage to stick this sign on my back without me feeling it?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Later in the day, on my way home I went to Accrington Tesco. As I got the the entrance/foyer bit where they keep such stuff as plants, compost, de-icer etc I saw a young woman sprawled out on a stack of compost bags with a police officer trying to get her to stand up. As you do curiosity gets the better of you and you just have to find out what's been happening. I asked a security guard who told me she'd bought a canister of butane gas from the tobacco kiosk and inhaled the whole can, making her go 'crazy', hitting folk and chucking stuff off the shelves around. They got on on her feet and took her away in a police van to I suppose spend a few hours in Blackburn police station's custody suite.

 

[MontyVeda]

Why on earth are they stocking compost at this time of year?

 

[AndyRM]

Why on earth are they stocking compost at this time of year?

Probably part of their "peat free" thing which they made a big deal out of last year.