A man leaves a north London branch of Aldi carrying two bags of groceries that he did not pay for. He hadn’t planned to steal, but after becoming exasperated with the slowness of staff attending to the various glitches and alarms of the self-checkout system, and assuming it would go unnoticed, decides to just walk out the door. He crosses the road and heads towards home.
It’s a busy part of town and this kind of thing happens all the time. He doubts anyone in the store even noticed. But a voice calls after him, a security guard has given chase.
The man, slightly panicked, doubles down and quickens his pace, pretending not to hear, but the guard keeps shouting, pleading for him to stop. In an attempt to lose his pursuer, the man ducks into a newsagent. The security guard enters, finds the man pretending to browse the fountain pens, and challenges him.
“Sir, you didn’t pay for that shopping.” The man is what criminologist Professor Emmeline Taylor calls a “Swiper”, a Seemingly Well-Intentioned Patron Engaging in Regular shoplifting. But he’s probably more of an opportunist than a regular offender.
I know because he’s a friend of mine. Someone I consider to be kind, thoughtful and, for the most part, law-abiding. But the same can be said for people across the country and that hasn’t stopped national shoplifting stats soaring.
According to the Office for National Statistics, 2023 was the worst year on record for shoplifting, with more than 430,000 cases record.
