{"id":550859,"date":"2025-11-05T14:34:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/550859\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T14:34:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T14:34:13","slug":"wallington-high-street-tackles-shoplifting-crisis-with-crime-watch-whatsapp-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/550859\/","title":{"rendered":"Wallington High Street tackles shoplifting crisis with crime watch WhatsApp group"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wallington high street has been tackling its shoplifting crisis with a crime watch WhatsApp group.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Retailers, dissatisfied with lack of intervention from police and courts, set up Wallington Community Action in October 2024 to notify one another when they spotted a shoplifter.<\/p>\n

This comes amid reports<\/a> from the Sutton Guardian last month that a man stole 34 times in 50 days from the Wallington Co-op.<\/p>\n

One 37-year-old retail employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said: \u201cIf I put [that I have spotted a shoplifter] in the group, <\/strong>someone from each door can go and stand at the door and then [the shoplifter\u2019s] like \u2018Why is everyone looking at me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group buzzes daily with criminal activity which, according to businesses the Londoners spoke to, has often worked as a deterrent.<\/p>\n

The employee added: \u201cA few times when I\u2019ve caught them, I said all of us are linked together, so don\u2019t bother trying to go to any other shop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though the group is having an impact, the retailers feel let down by the police and courts when they report each incident.<\/p>\n

A 52-year-old retail manager said: \u201cI was assaulted the other day by two customers, and the police didn\u2019t think it was a priority. They still haven\u2019t been for the footage \u2013 that was two Fridays ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my cases got thrown out [of court] because I didn\u2019t let her get out of the door\u2026she might have been going to pay for it.\u201d <\/p>\n

The retailers said when police do interact with shoplifters, they often take their side by asking employees to apologise, provide customer service or by letting them go.<\/p>\n

Chris Johnson, 62, a charity shop owner, said: \u201cIn my more negative moments, I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s pulling their weight. I think we\u2019ve been thrown to the wolves and just left to get on with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Chris Johnson, 62, charity shop owner. Credit: Rume Otuguor<\/p>\n

The retailers also feel second-best in security resources to its larger counterpart, Sutton high street. <\/p>\n

Businesses on Sutton high street have radios<\/a> to communicate and a police station, whereas Wallington has neither. <\/p>\n

Johnson said: \u201cWe used to have a police station around the corner, then it was a police office, and then it was a police phone, and then it was nothing at all.\u201d <\/p>\n

The WhatsApp group contains one police officer, but higher priorities divert her attention elsewhere.<\/p>\n

Wallington high street businesses have suffered major financial losses as a cost of the repeated robberies.<\/p>\n

A 55-year-old manager, who wished to remain anonymous, said: \u201cWe\u2019ve had an instance where we\u2019ve lost \u00a36,000 worth of cosmetics. They were here for 15 minutes.\u201d <\/p>\n

The threshold of financial losses for prosecuting shoplifting currently stands at \u00a3200, but the Crime and Policing Bill 2025<\/a>, proposes to scrap that figure. <\/p>\n

This means all shoplifting cases will be treated as general theft with a maximum prison sentence of seven years.<\/p>\n

However, according to the businesses, the figures have no impact on policing, given the consistent abuse they face.<\/p>\n

The 37-year-old said: \u201cWe get abused every day. [My colleague] had a man shouting, screaming and swearing in her face.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old added: \u201cI\u2019ve been threatened with a screwdriver by one. Half of them you don\u2019t even touch, they\u2019re so violent.\u201d<\/p>\n

They believe it would take someone getting seriously injured to force the police to be stricter with their punishment.<\/p>\n

Some shops have posters on their windows of the most notorious shoplifters who roam the area. <\/p>\n

If they are tame enough, employees may apprehend them.<\/p>\n

\"\"WANTED: Notorious shoplifters of Wallington High Street. Credit: Rume Otuguor<\/p>\n

Employees are encouraged not to chase shoplifters out of the store as their companies cannot be held responsible for their safety once that line is crossed.<\/p>\n

The Crime and Policing Bill 2025 also proposes to introduce an offence for assaulting a retail worker.<\/p>\n

Although most of the high-street shops feel affected financially and mentally by the crisis, some places feel differently.<\/p>\n

A manager at Lidl, Aura Blaga, 32, said: \u201cThe shoplifting rate in Wallington is lower than the Croydon area because I was there for over a year, so I can compare just with that period that it\u2019s a little bit better.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Tesco Express security guard added: \u201cIt\u2019s a common thing; every area has their issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wallington South Met Police were contacted but refused to comment.<\/p>\n

Featured image credit: Rume Otuguor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wallington high street has been tackling its shoplifting crisis with a crime watch WhatsApp group. Retailers, dissatisfied with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":550860,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,142565,188,393,4884,13465,257,363,23178,25827,44834,20941,16,15,176500,599],"class_list":{"0":"post-550859","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-charity-shop","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-high-street","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-retail","16":"tag-shoplifting","17":"tag-south-london","18":"tag-sutton","19":"tag-theft","20":"tag-uk","21":"tag-united-kingdom","22":"tag-wallington","23":"tag-whatsapp"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115497590712887899","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=550859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/550859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/550860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=550859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=550859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=550859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}