14 September 2023 , 20:42
976
0
The shoplifting epidemic brings with it shocking violence against those who work in stores.
Three-quarters have suffered abuse from customers, union USDAW found, with thefts from shops triggering nearly a third of the incidents last year. The Mirror’s Clamp Down on Shoplifting campaign calls for the reversal of Tory laws in which theft of goods under £200 is a minor offence punishable by a £70 postal fine.
The British Retail Consortium wants a separate offence of assaulting a retail worker. Here, two shop workers supported by USDAW tell of their own terrible experiences. Shop floor manager Jack, 61, was attacked and left with PTSD last year. And Jo, 59, tells how just last weekend a shoplifter threatened to slash her colleagues with a knife.
Jack's story
I was attacked in the run-up to Christmas. I was on my way to the office when a female member of staff came looking for me. She said a lad who’d been barred from the store for attempted theft had just walked in. I had to deal with this because our security guard was off – we have security five days a week, so thieves target us when he isn’t there. They work with a girl who sits opposite the store and lets them know when there’s no-one protecting the place.
Mirror's campaignBy the time I got to the shop floor he had some electrical items. He shouted, “ I’m f***ing having these” and hit me in the side of my face, knocking out a tooth, which l accidentally swallowed. The police found him but couldn’t interview him for 48 hours because he was on a drug called monkey dust and totally out of it.
Man in 30s dies after being stabbed in park sparking police probe
This area has a terrible problem with monkey dust. It’s blighting our community and driving a lot of shoplifting and violence. I continued to work but I felt like I was going to have a breakdown. In my 22-year career, I have been attacked around 15 times and it’s taken a terrible toll on my mental and physical health.
One woman bit me then told me she had HIV. Another time, I was beaten very badly, which led me to quitting as store manager. I gave up the money to avoid this kind of situation but when it happened again, it pushed me over the edge. My doctor diagnosed me with PTSD, anxiety and depression, and signed me off sick. My case went to court and my attacker had been out on licence, so he was sent back to jail.
Jo's story
Me and my colleagues don’t even refer to it as shoplifting any more. We call it looting. It’s the threat of violence and it’s the intimidation that needs to stop, because you never know if somebody’s just saying stuff or if they are carrying a weapon.
Over the weekend, a shoplifter was going around multiple stores stealing things and threatening to slash staff. When he was finally caught, he actually did have a knife on him. We shouldn’t have to come into work and deal with this. People don’t understand that it is a hard experience to endure every day.
Some people have even left their jobs to do something else because it can cause deep anxiety issues that are hard to get over. One of the greatest problems we have are the repeat offenders. These are people who are known to us. These are people that will go into multiple stores repeatedly, knowing they could get caught, but they don’t care. Some do get caught, are locked up and then when they come out they go back to re-offending. It’s a perpetual motion.
We’re talking about key workers who, not very long ago, were putting themselves at risk in the pandemic. We had a brief period where there were some lovely things done by the general public supporting key workers and we felt like we mattered. That just seems like a distant memory now.
I’d like to see the police back to the levels of five or six years ago. Then, when you had an incident like this, you’d call the police and they were there. The Government needs to do more to protect retail staff, so we can go into work and not feel intimidated.