UK shoplifting hotspot with panic buttons in Greggs and barricaded supermarkets
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'Britain's shoplifting capital' has reported soaring crime levels, with Greggs outlets even installing panic alarms after having £200 worth of donuts and sausage rolls nicked in one day.
Cleveland in North Yorkshire boasts the highest shoplifting rate in the country, which police reckon is fuelled by drug addicts openly selling their stolen stash. The area from Hartlepool to Stockton-on-Tees has 15 times as many thefts each year as Surrey as thieves pocket pricey items like meat and washing powder to hock the goods to people struggling to pay supermarket prices.
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A Cleveland Police officer told The Mirror: "Shop owners are beyond sick and tired. They’re losing thousands of pounds and there’s very little they can do to stop it."
Police work around the clock to catch criminals but are fight a losing battle with lags reoffending the moment they're released from prison. Locating them is also a challenge with many postcode-hopping to avoid detection.
Statistics reveal shoplifting offences in England and Wales rocketed in the last year. Some 365,164 thefts were recorded by police in the year to June, up 25% on the previous 12 months.
The rise has been much higher in the northeast. At a Greggs branch on Middlesbrough High Street, staff now wear panic buzzers to alert colleagues if a violent thief enters the shop.
Manager Lynne, who has seen the violence first-hand, said: "It’s rife, they’ll come in and help themselves to the sandwiches, they’ll take the doughnuts, they’ll take a handful of sausage rolls. It’s absolutely disgusting."
In Eston, Middlesbrough, the situation is so bad the local Tesco Express has to lock the doors in the evening and allow entry through a buzzer system. Staff have also permanently barricaded one of the doors because thieves took advantage of the easy exit.
She said: “It’s incredibly frustrating and a massive, massive issue – it’s probably something you deal with five to seven times a day. You’re also constantly assaulted."
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- Greggs
- Crime
- Police
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