Help

[MarkBrady11]

My Younger brother has just come clean to me and has admitted he has been shoplifting for a while. Silly boy to say the least. Would the supermarket build up a case of his CCTV footage of him stealing to send to the police? How will the shop know if the items are missing? And how could the police track him down he hasn't been caught in that store that we know off. Thanks

[PallasAthena]

It is highly unlikely that any store trawls though its CCTV if it hasn't seen the person while they were in the store and stopped them at the time. Stores can have many different cameras and are open 12+ hours a day. Technically it would be possible but in practice why would they invest the hours and hours of staff time that would be needed? And stores don't keep their CCTV very long. They don't say how long they keep it but it's generally thought that a month or two at the most. [EDIT Tesco's Privacy Policy on their website, for example, says they keep CCTV images for 30 days from date they were created.]

If he has just been stealing routine supermrket products and hasn't been stopped by the store secutiry people the likelihood of the store identifying him and reporting him to the police is so small as to be not worth worrying about.

If he keeps on stealing though one day he'll get caught in-store.

[atticus]

While I agree that the various things that you fear are unlikely to happen, you might want to take a different approach with your brother in order to get him to break his habit. Perhaps stressing downsides when he is caught. For example, you can stress the government's upcoming more stringent approach to shoplifting offences.

[MarkBrady11]

I did some research saw one case where they kicked a guys door through because he was shoplifting. God knows how the police managed to track him down but they said they built up a case through CCTV. In what circumstances would Waitrose for example and Sainsburys work together to track him down with help from police?

[MarkBrady11]

No security guard has spoken to him or any members of staff or have even followed him or spied on him but they could be clever and just wait.

[PallasAthena]

Media stories like that nearly always involve people who have either used violence or weapons to carry out their stealing, or are part of organised gangs engaged in large scale theft.

[PallasAthena]

No security guard has spoken to him or any members of staff or have even followed him or spied on him but they could be clever and just wait.

That's not a credible scenario. If they saw him steal in store they'd have stopped him there and then.

[MarkBrady11]

Okay thank you. Would they collaborate with other supermarkets in terms of CCTV?

[MarkBrady11]

What new measures are the government bringing in?

[atticus]

UK government new shoplifting measures

[MarkBrady11]

So finale point do you think they've contacted other stores and the police to carry out a broader investigation? He said it was petty things like fruit and cakes, he just said he even speaks to the security guard in the store being friendly and he hasn't said anything to hime which is weird. Because if he was being investigated I doubt the security guard would want to speak to him?

[PallasAthena]

So finale point do you think they've contacted other stores and the police to carry out a broader investigation? He said it was petty things like fruit and cakes, ....

You are letting your imagination run away with you. No I don't think they've contacted other stores and the police to carry out a broader investigation into someone who has stolen fruit and cakes.

[MarkBrady11]

He's been doing it for a while apparently

[PallasAthena]

How old is your younger brother?

[MarkBrady11]

20s. How do stores know if items have gone missing? If the security and members of staff haven't approached him and even talk to him even though he's done it regularly does that mean they still know?