I stood up to shoplifters in Tesco. It ruined my life
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/18/i-stood-up-to-shoplifters-it-ruined-my-life/
by Low_Map4314
I stood up to shoplifters in Tesco. It ruined my life
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/18/i-stood-up-to-shoplifters-it-ruined-my-life/
by Low_Map4314
34 comments
The big issue here is they felt they could deck a random person with absolutely impunity. And they were correct.
> Tesco claimed CCTV footage of the incident had been “lost in a technical error”
Wouldn’t be surprised if some of the staff are in on it.
Iceland’s £1 bounty for catching a shoplifter suddenly doesn’t look like great value.
Maybe shops should invest in better loss prevention…not normal folk risking their safety for some greedy corporation.
Or maybe police will actually investigate, CPS prosecute and the judges sentence these degenerate low life thieves accordingly…*’poor John Paul with only 173 previous convictions gets another suspended sentence’*
The cctv aint surprising.. these huge chains should have 2k/4k cctv as standard.
My local Greggs has now put all their products behind glass doors to protect themselves from shoplifting.
Going shopping in store will be like going into an Argos soon where you order everything off a tablet instore, pay for it and then someone wheels out your shopping for you.
Shoplifting like many other petty crimes has effectively become decriminalised in the UK so it’s up to every person and business to protect themselves.
When a fully licenced security guard can’t lay a finger on a crackhead waltzing through the front door of his employer’s premises, arms full of meat and spirits, it’s clear that something needs to change.
and Iceland wants to pay you £1 to report a shoplifter, I don’t think it’s worth it
Good on her for trying to do the right thing, she reported it and didn’t directly confront them.
But all this does is reinforce that no, you absolutely shouldn’t give two fucks about supermarket thieves.
The government don’t care, the police don’t care and even if you could just go batter them yourself you’d likely face sterner charges than they ever would.
This is simply what the country’s been reduced to.
But remember you can get £1 on your Iceland loyalty card
Back in 2002 I got a job with blockbuster, the only reason there was a vacancy was because the store fired their security guard for running away when a staff member stood up to a shoplifter and got stabbed in the leg. They gave up on security guards, as it made no difference to the shop lifters
No one should be risking their safety to stop people shoplifting, as the person doing it is probably more aggressive or has nothing to lose. This includes the staff and security.
And most of the prolific shoplifter don’t care if the shop is staffed or has self service kiosks, so we are probably going to see more shops going the greggs or argos route.
Lawless Britain. A justice system and a police force that is too concerned with curbing free speech or fining the public for any offence they can think of rather than actually deal with violent criminals.
Our police are worthless.
Punch someone in the face and steal from stores? Fine.
Say something naughty on twitter? Off with your head!
Could they request a response from it director why corporate equipment failed when they are supposed to have a redundant system and backup could they sue Tesco for breach of their data compliance charter in their inability to provide the video
I spent 5+ years working in supermarket retail and an interesting pattern I observed is that female employees generally seemed to care far more about stopping theft than their male counterparts. It always struck me as weird and made me wonder what was going on there psychology.
“if you see someone shoplifting, you didn’t”
This the bullshit we have to see, someone tried to stop it and got hurt, there not stealing to feed there family, its all about selling the shit they can get something or just stealing. baby formula is the worst, Women hiding it in their push chairs, dresses, tops and burkas (worked in a supermarket, she manged to get 12 tubs, somewhere. angry cause she stole, impressed she managed to get that much, at the time local crack heads wished they could do that).
nobody is stealing fruit or bread in large numbers. food is getting more expensive every year, thefts are only making that more expensive, its a small margin, but it all adds up, just like food waste in supermarket but thats another kettle of fish.
would people even like it, if it tried to stop someone shoplifting, if i got attacked, how many people would call me a idiot for even doing anything
Until our criminal justice system actually pushes out proper punishment, crime will continue to be an easy life for those that choose it.
Irrespective of this article there is absolutely no way I’d put myself in danger to ‘stand up’ to criminal gangs. Statements like this only serve as a distraction from our woefully underfunded police force and grossly lenient courts.
If it was Iceland, she’d have at least been a pound richer
Are there any positive developments in the UK? Most articles I read on Reddit paint the UK as basically the Titanic slowly sinking?
I read that Starmer made preventing shoplifting a priority, but then I read that custodial sentences are down for exactly these types of crimes? My expectation when reading these articles would be that the problem will be handled? Or are politicians in the UK okay with (potentially escalating?) issues like this.
I am genuinely curious
Fuck me, this happened 10 years ago. Why’s she dragging it up now for if not only for coin?
There’s no excuding violently attacking her in this situation.
But if supermarkets let standards slip, it will attract anti-social behaviour.
If a store is cleary in turmoil half the time because there are not enough staff to keep an eye on customers, shoplifters will take notice. Hell, a lot of shoplifters in the store I work at have gone through self-service tills. People get an ‘unexpected item in the bagging area’ message or ‘approval needed’ for a product. No member of staff is immediately there to help them. A significant number of them just walk off with stuff. A training manual at the supermarket I work for said that this will happen with 40 seconds.
Yet the supermarkets are all trying to get more customers to use self-service and cut back on staff.
If security guards do not give a damn about anything because the company outsources to the cheapest option, then people won’t expect them to step in when a crime is comitted. At some point a CFO looked at the benefits of cutting staff, and the likely consequences, and decided to cut staff. It is not up to wider society to make that work for them.
The Telegraph wants to place 257 cookies on my phone or I pay them…to read an article. Fuck that.
This happens here in my town, it apparently has the highest shop lifting rate in the south, maybe even the country, I forget which.
Each train station in my town has a convenience store right next to it, they get off the train, just walk in casually, take anything they can grab, go back to the train, go to the next stop and repeat.
Even if the police are called, they rarely if ever show up and even if they do, they make a note of it and….yea, nothing.
It’s the same people doing it over and over.
And this poor lady is why you shouldn’t intervene, what if they were carrying a knife or other weapon? It’s just not worth the risk.
I work for Tesco (part-time, I can’t get full-time hours). Nowadays I work in the middle of the store so I don’t see shoplifting, but I used to work near the entrance/exit so I’d see it quite a bit. On one hand you feel like you are being ridiculed and made fun of, and that they are mocking you personally by doing it. On the other hand, I get paid 2% above minimum wage. Yes it must feel good to deck a shoplifter, I’d love to, but not for this shitshow of a company. The pro’s simply do not outweigh the con’s of retaliation, legal issues, etc.
Our store had it’s biggest Christmas takings on record last year, they responded by slashing overtime.
Sadly, this is why setting aside the anti-capitalist pontification, people should adhere to the notion of “if you see someone shoplifting, no you didn’t” for self-preservation. People who are willing to brazenly steal in broad daylight typically aren’t the kind who you want to cross.
In general, unless someone is in danger, just mind your own business. If supermarkets and the police aren’t willing to do anything about it, why should we? They’re the ones whose job it literally is to do that…
Should have gone to Iceland. They are paying £1 for anyone informing the staff of a shoplifter. Seriously.
I used to shoplift here and there a bit when I was 15-16 years old. I was caught once and I think I nearly wanted to die from the shame and never did it again. These criminals are so brazen and they know they will only get a slap on the wrist at best
the thing is if there are one two thieves and every member joined in . then they would think twice. right now people mind their business and dont intervene..
Aren’t Tesco staff trained not to intervene with shop lifters?
“shoplifting is not a victimless crime”
Sorry, who is the victim in shoplifting?
When I worked in Sainsburys we were told to not to approach shoplifters as there had been stabbings etc. It’s really not worth it, just get on with your job.
This all started happening after the crash in 2008, ie the rise of capitalism, where everything started going up in price, but working wages didn’t follow, but the bosses an shareholders started getting richer an richer. That’s what has caused the problem we have today, Greed of the Greedy Capitalist.
Fucked around, found out, cries about it for a decade.
What is this recent weird obsession over shoplifters and the general public has a duty blah blah lol what absolute insanity. All my life police have advised never to intervene, ever. I would never even think to stop someone stealing from Tesco’s! I’m not getting killed over a baguette! In all seriousness it’s the store’s issue and if they can catch the person, then, wonderful. However, this clear right wing distraction from taxing correctly is surely even seeping into the brains of dailyfail readers, surely?
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