Shoplifters Create Problems For Police And Store-owners

Press, Volume C, Issue 29510, 11 May 1961, Page 2

Shoplifters Create Problems For Police And Store-owners

Shoplifters in New Zealand are no longer just an annoyance. They have created a serious problem for police and store-owners alike. Their thefts amount to thousands of pounds each year. The offenders operate in drapers’ shops, grocery stores, jewellers’ shops, department stores and fruiterers’ as well as in the chain stores. “Perhaps only the small milkbars and tobacconists and shops with similar interior construction, are relatively safe from shoplifters,” said Superintendent C. L. Spencer, of the Christchurch Police, yesterday.

Asked to comment on a recent statement by the Wellington Housewives' Association that stores were putting temptation in the way of shoplifter* with open displays. Mr Spencer agreed. “Bin* of goods on display outside shoos should at least be covered,” he said. “I have actually seen schoolboys filching pencils and pens from chain store counters." said Mrs M. E. Furey, secretary of the Canterbury Housewives Union. “The articles were not expensive but it wag still stealing. It is my personal opinion that too many articles are left in the way of these persons. It is just too tempting for them. I have noticed that the more expensive goods in these stores are kept under glass. Well, why not keep everything under glass?” Never Corrected In many cases shoplifting is a disease but there are pergons who drift into counterstealing because they were never corrected as children.

“Children who are not taught that stealing is wrong and whose parents take no interest in what they bring home could, in later years, become hardened shoplifters.” said Mr Spencer. “As they grow older and realise the value of money, they also become shrewder. Very often a child will not have the article in his possession when he is apprehended. He will have passed it on to a friend.”

In New Zealand there are “professional shoplifters” who can support themselves almost entirely by this. They steal their food from the grocers’ and fruiterers’ shops and their clothing from department and chain stores. Sometimes they can collect enough extra goods to sell. By moving from city to city, these persons can often avoid the police for some time, if they can also avoid the alert shop assistants who are trained to watch for their best-known actions.

Women wearing full skirts will very often have pocket*

concealed in the folds and their handbags will have false bases to them.

Shoplifters thrive at sales, or at any time when the stores are crowded with genuine shoppers. But even though assistants are rushed, shoplifters do not always get away with the goods. In one grocery store in the North Island two shoplifters had been caught in one Friday evening, Mr Spencer said. In jewellers’ shops, mirrors are strategically placed and goods are not so frequently on display. Even so, many rings and watches have been removed from window displays while an assistant’s back was turned. From department stores the shoplifter acquires new coats, hats, shoes, dresses and other clothing. One Auckland firm finds that thefts cost about £20.000 a year. Figure* from various Christchurch stores were not available last evening but these firms also realise that they have considerable losses during the year. Because self-service counters have become part of the New Zealand way of life and are certainly convenient for the genuine shopper as well as the shoplifter, little can be done to prevent these thefts. On the other hand, the reward is small compared with the risks taken. Convicted shoplifters are usually sentenced to a gaol term or put on probation.