Moment shoplifter empties shelf of wine and spirits into bag in daylight Co-Op raid in Lawless London before sneering to staff ‘I’ll be back tomorrow, same time’
This is the shocking moment a shoplifter was filmed brazenly filling a huge bag full of stolen booze before sneering at staff: ‘I’ll be back tomorrow, same time.’
In yet another damning view of Lawless London, a thief was caught helping himself to more than a dozen bottles of wine from Co-Op in Lavender Hill, Wandsworth.
The 64-second clip has since gone viral and shows the man, dressed in a white hoody, swiping booze and stuffing it into a large black duffel bag as a Co-Op worker watches on. powerless to stop the raid.
‘He doesn’t know what to do man, he don’t know what to do,’ said the man filming the incident, which took place on at 9.50pm on July 29 but appeared on social media on Friday.
The powerless Co-Op worker is then seen kicking the man’s bag as the crook makes his getaway, before the thief then snidely tells him: ‘Bless you. Have a nice day, yeah, I’ll be back tomorrow – same time.’
Shocking video footage captured the moment a shoplifter was caught dumping more than a dozen wine bottles into a bag before making his escape
The brazen thief appeared to struggle to get out the Co-op in Lavender Hill, Wandsworth, with his heavy ruck sack, weighed down by stolen booze
The Co-Op worker is seen watching on helplessly before the thief snidely tells him: ‘Bless you. Have a nice day, yeah, I’ll be back tomorrow – same time.’
Footage of the thief emerged as Co-op revealed crime, shoplifting and anti-social behaviour had ballooned by 35 per cent, with more than 175,000 incidents recorded in the first six months of this year – almost 1,000 incidents every day.
Bosses at the retailer have since lashed out at the authorities for allowing criminal gangs to act with impunity ‘with a freedom to loot’.
READ MORE: Co-op store owner says police won’t investigate shoplifters unless the theft is over £200, there is clear CCTV of their face – and he knows their NAME
One of the retailer’s London stores was ‘looted’ three times in a single day, Co-op said, with the chain now warning the level of crime it was experiencing was ‘out of control’.
The firm is now urging police forces and crime chiefs to target prolific offenders and gangs amid fears further crime could force stores to close.
Matt Hood, Co-op Food managing director, said: ‘We know retail crime is driven by repeat and prolific offenders and, organised criminal gangs. It is an ongoing challenge for all retailers, and in the worst instances can even be described as “looting”.
‘I have seen some horrific incidents of brazen and violent theft in our stores, where my store colleagues feel scared and threatened. I see first-hand how this criminal behaviour also erodes the very fabric of our communities – it’s hard to over-emphasise how important urgent change is.
‘Co-op has invested significantly in keeping colleagues and stores safe, but we need the police to play their part. Too often, forces fail to respond to desperate calls by our store teams, and criminals are operating in communities without any fear of consequences.’
Research by Co-op also revealed front-line staff had seen physical assaults increase year-on-year by almost a third and, anti-social behaviour and verbal abuse rising by a fifth.
The thief (pictured in the white hoody, right) was caught on camera appearing to lash out at the Co-op worker as he fled from the store in Wandsworth with a bag full of wine
James Lowman, chief executive of the Association of Convenience Stores which represents shop workers, said repeat offenders were a nightmare for retailers.
‘Our members are at the sharp end, seeing crime in their communities get steadily worse,’ he added.
READ MORE HERE: Shoplifting epidemic that has turned Britain’s High Street stores into battlefields: Security tags on £2 chocolate bars and staff in daily terror of violent gangs, CLAIRE COHEN investigates
‘This organised criminal activity exploits vulnerable people by getting them to steal to order in exchange for their next fix, funds the illegal drug trade, and harms businesses that provide essential services to communities.
‘The police have to face up to theft, violence and anti-social behaviour in and around local shops.’
The news comes just days after a Co-op boss blasted cops for failing to clampdown on lawless thugs stealing from his stores.
Richard Inglis, who runs a chain of Co-op stores in Hampshire, accused the police of effectively decriminalising shoplifting by failing to take it seriously.
He claimed he was told by police that reports of shoplifting need to meet a certain criteria before a policeman will respond.
The revelation comes after a shop worker showed the extent of her injuries after being botted by a shoplifter.
Charlene Corbin, 28, has since shared pictures of her gruesome head wound to highlight the danger retailers face from increasingly brazen and violent thieves.
Charlene Corbin, 28, was bottled by a shoplifter at the Co-Op where she works
Pictured is CCTV footage of shop workers confronting a thief at Richard Inglis’s Co-Op store
Mr Inglis has claimed that the police do not look into thefts if they do not fulfil a set of criteria
Mr Inglis said: ‘It used to be a police officer would have come down, taken a statement and CCTV. But as they have cut back on resources we have to do our own statements now and upload the CCTV to a system and those cases are then reviewed.
‘The burden of proof we have to provide now is so extreme.
‘I have been told by the police that the value of the stock has to be over £200 and if I don’t know their name and don’t have a clear shot of their face on CCTV then it won’t get to court.
‘They’ve decriminalised these things and that has caused it to increase, there’s no deterrent.’.
Miss Corbin, who works in a Co-op in neighbouring Dorset, was attacked when she went to stop a thief she saw steal a hot pastry and two bottles of alcohol.
She said: ‘I grabbed my head and went back inside the store. I started to feel slightly faint and then I fell to my knees.
Pictured is Ms Corbin’s head wound that she sustained after being bottled by a thief at the store
‘I took my hand off my head and realised I was bleeding. I felt it trickling all down my neck and chest – my work shirt was red with blood.
‘In the two years I’ve worked there, we’ve had staff pushed and spat at, smacked. It shouldn’t be happening.
‘Since this incident I completely stay out of the way of shoplifters now and I worry about colleagues putting themselves in danger. We don’t feel safe.’
MailOnline has approached the Metropolitan Police for comment about the theft at the Co-op in Wandsworth.
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