Sad day for shoplifters
In 1956 I caught my first shoplifter, a 14-year-old lad pocketing a packet of playing cards. I threatened to twist his ears off if I caught him again. The manager was passing and said: "You'll not let him off." The girls thought we were cruel. I thought so, too, just for a pack of cards.
"I've never done it before, mister," the lad wailed as we led him towards the office. "I'll never do it again if you let me go, honest."
A tallish policewoman and a huge policeman arrived.
"It's not only me," the lad gabbled. He couldn't get names out fast enough.
Houses were raided. Lots of goods recovered, including goods stolen from other places.
I had to go to Digbeth Police Station, after the trials, to identify goods that had come from our store.
There was usually enough merchandise there to start another store.
The police got "fences" as well as leads on burglaries and other shoplifters. Many more shoplifters were caught.
Shoplifting was, and still is, a well organised business. Half those caught in my days working in retail were at it all day, every day, with people in the background organising the disposal of stolen goods.
The Birmingham Bull Ring store recovered vast quantities from "lifters" as they left the store. For each of those caught there must have been three or four more. One city centre store turned shoplifters over to the police at the average rate of 240 per week!
Most arrests brought about the recovery of goods from these people's homes plus leads to other criminals.
The loss to a store is anything between two per cent and six per cent of the turnover.
Maybe the police and the government of today just don't want to catch any criminals!
W J Brimson, Chapel Avenue, Brownhills.
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