The man in the photo appears to have forgotten to pay for two Murano glass clowns worth $200 each from our Sophie Randall Forest Hill store in the last 24 hours. This happened Thursday afternoon and yesterday lunchtime. In each case we had different people working. He was in an out in less than 90 seconds, wearing the same clothes each day except for the cap. He was back today and was headed for our store but saw us spot him. Security followed him but lost him.
While I don’t expect any of the 1,000+ daily visitors here to recognise the man, I figured it is worth trying.
The video footage shows him leaving with goods in hand and not paying. While we suspect he knew what he was doing, we are prepared to provide the benefit of the doubt if he makes contact and returns to goods.
While it is shutting the gate after the horse has bolted, we are making some changes not only in this store but in other stores in or group to tighten security and to make it clearer that people stealing will be identified.
Situations like this remind me why retailers become bitter and trust no one.
Hi Mark,
The man you have caught on camera may be your shop lifter, but he is also “innocent until proven guilty”… which means publishing images of him may not be in your best interests form a legal perspective.
If/when he is caught and charged, you may then publish this image legally.
Scott,
I know I am taking a risk. I am tired of catching people leading nowhere. The only justice I have is shame.
Mark
Scott,please explain the crimestoppers philosophy then,they publish similar shots!
No Mark this is a different situation.
I know it’s easy to have an emotive response to shop lifting… We have considered placing images of shop lifters in our store…
However the person in your images could sue you for defamation. You need to catch and successfully prosecute the person first.
Sorry… not Mark… Helen
Why is it different,you didnt really explain why their circumstances (ie crimestoppers) of trying to publicly identify uncaught and uncharged individuals is any different to what Mark is doing
Helen,
I am not a lawyer, but I have sought legal advice on this previously, and have stated this advice in the entries above.
My non-legal opinion is that the Police (crimestoppers) do not publish images of someone and say they are a “thief”…. they say something along the lines of “police are interested in speaking to this person regarding a crime at….”.
I have modified the post to reflect advice provided here. Thanks everyone!
lol…
We have definitely been through some tricks people use to steal from our shop.
In one instance a young man stuffed some mags inside his pants. Another customer didn’t see the whole thing but suspected something and so alert us. My husband manage to confront the thief outside and got back the mags.
We then informed other shopkeepers along our strip and apparently he’s “shopped” at the florist, pharmacy,liquor shop and grocery store as well but they couldn’t get him as he had left.
In another instance, this gentleman took some business mags with newspaper, wandered to back of shop, rearrange to hide them so as to pay for newspaper and one mag only at the cashier.
We saw this progress of events through our security cameras as my husband was curious as he saw him previously selecting mags. My husband then went outside of shop on the offchance the man was still hanging around. To our amazement he was at the bakery sitting down having coffee!!! So my husband just said “I don’t believe you had paid for these magazines from my shop” without argument or any word, he then handed over $20.
Helen,
Hopefully the police were called and the offender was charged. We had a shoplifter and used the evidence on the security camera to have them charged.
We then visited all the shops in town and let them know who the offender was. They all had their suspicions about the offender and were happy that someone had finely caught them.
Clem
i caught many offenders in my 13 years of newsagency, but the thieves are king here. you can’t touch them or do anything and they can sue you. i wish i were a thief too:)they are no any kind of punishment for being a thief. even a police tell me that. i caught many thieves that have records as thick as the bible but the police just take a record and let them go. nice being a thief in australia.